FRESNO, Calif.—While adversity is something the UH Hilo men's basketball team is used to, it is starting to look like they relish it.

Down by as many as 17 points three different times in the first half, the gritty Vulcans rallied back on the road for a stunning 77-72 win over Fresno Pacific on Wednesday afternoon at the Special Events Center. They improved to 3-3 in the Pacific West Conference and to 5-5 overall, while the Sunbirds fell to 5-7 on the year and to 2-5 in the PacWest.

The Vulcans were led by Larry Bush's career-high 24 points, but it was a total team effort, especially on the defensive end. The Vulcans forced the Sunbirds into 27 turnovers, and they had 19 steals—just one theft off the school record that they set two nights ago against Dominican.

"We battled and showed grit and toughness," head coach GE Coleman said after the game. "We could have folded after trailing by that much. But we kept saying that our pressure would prevail and it finally did."

In the last two games, the Vulcans now have 39 steals and have forced 65 turnovers.

Bush had nine rebounds and six steals to go with his 24 points. Senior post Denhym Brooke had 15 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three steals. Five different Vulcans had at least three steals.

The Vulcans were missing 6-7 senior post Devin Johnson, who went down against Dominican. But they welcomed back leading scorer James Griffin, albeit not at 100 percent yet. Nonetheless, Griffin contributed 11 points, hitting a trio of three-pointers in the first half. Kupaa Harrison added 12 points and Cleo Cain had 10.

The Sunbirds, who lost to the Vulcans in December in Hilo, looked to make amends early. In fact, they couldn't miss for most of the first half.

The home team hit their first five three-point attempts and would nail 8-of-11 treys in the first half. After UHH led 10-9 early, the Sunbirds went on an 18-0 run, using the long ball to build a 41-24 lead with 3:27 to go before the end of the half.  At the break, the Sunbirds led 47-33—shooting both 72 percent from the field and 72 percent from beyond the arch.

The Vulcans ramped up the pressure in the second half. They scored the first seven points after intermission to cut the margin to 47-40. Cain and Brooke hit treys and the Vulcans continued to force FPU into turnovers as they cut the deficit to 53-50 with 13 minutes left. At 8:40, a steal by Jordan Graves and a Bush lay in tied the game at 56-56.

That was part of a 13-0 run by the Vulcans that gave them the lead—one that they wouldn't give up. Even after Griffin fouled out with 4:25 left, back-to-back baskets by Harrison gave the visitors a 72-65 lead. Cain followed that with a trey to make it 75-67 with 1:10 remaining.

Fresno Pacific helped by hitting just one of two free throws twice in the final minute, and Graves sealed things with two free tosses with five seconds left.

FPU had 17 turnovers in the second half. After a scorching first half shooting, they hit only 36 percent in the final 20 minutes and were just 2-for-9 from three-point range.

"Winning any game on the road in this conference, well you can't take that for granted," Coleman added. "To come back like we did today was impressive."

The Vulcans will wrap up this three-game road trip with a Friday encounter at Academy of Art in San Francisco.