This Week in Vulcan Women's Basketball
Record: 1-7 (0-4 PWC)

UHH Opens Up 2020 with Long Weekend of Games                                                             
Thursday, Jan. 2 vs. Fresno Pacific (5-5 / 3-2 PWC), 5 pm, Civic Auditorium
Saturday, Jan. 4 vs. Point Loma (9-2 / 5-0 PWC), 5 pm, Civic Auditorium
Monday, Jan. 6 vs. Biola (8-3 / 4-1 PWC), 5 pm, Civic Auditorium

New Year, Five Straight Home Games: UH Hilo will open up the 2020 portion of their schedule with five consecutive home games, including three tip-offs in five days over a long weekend. After playing Fresno Pacific (Thursday), Point Loma (Saturday) and Biola (Monday), the Vulcans will take on Dominican (Jan. 9) and Notre Dame de Namur (Jan, 13) to finish up their longest homestand of the season.
 
No Let Up: After playing four nationally ranked opponents in their first eight games, the schedule doesn't let up much with this first trio of contests in 2020. Granted, none of the three are nationally ranked (yet), but they all have winning records and Point Loma and Biola have already topped the Vulcans this year. The D-II opponents that the Vulcans have played so far this year are a combined 63-17 on the year, an astounding winning percentage of .787. That list includes Sioux Falls (11-2), Minnesota State-Moorhead (10-3), Azusa Pacific (9-3), Concordia (5-3), Biola (8-3), Point Loma (9-2) and Alaska Anchorage (12-1).

Making Anchorage Look a Little More Average: In their latest adventure against a top team, the Vulcans took No. 10 Alaska Anchorage into scary territory before the Seawolves pulled away in the fourth quarter. The Vulcans led for a good portion of the game, including by ten points at one juncture in the third quarter. They held UAA, who played in the NCAA title game in 2016, to just 25 halftime points, and UHH's 28-25 lead at the break marked the first time that the Seawolves have trailed at intermission all year. The Vulcans led 43-40 early in the fourth, but UAA answered with a 10-0 run and wouldn't trail again to avoid the upset.
 
Allie's Anything But Average: While Alaska Anchorage was in upset alert, UH Hilo's Allie Navarette was surpassing a milestone and putting up school record breaking numbers. With her first basket of the second half, the 6-foot junior scored her 1,000 career point (she now has 1,002). She is now also the all-time leading scorer, having passed Sheila Azevedo (2007-09) who had 978 points in three seasons. There will be more to come. With just two more blocked shots (50) and two more rebounds (508), the Torrance, Calif. native will become UHH's all-time leader in those categories, with another year and a half yet to play.
 
A Look at the Numbers: Allie Navarette has three doubles-doubles this year, and was one rebound away from a fourth against Alaska Anchorage (12 points, 9 rebounds). She currently leads the Vulcans with 12.9 points and 7.8 rebounds a game. She is converting 82 percent of her free throw attempts, leads the team in blocks with five and is second in steals with 10. Kim Schmelz is just under 10 points a game at 9.9, with Mandi Kawaha next at 7.3, Sara Shimizu 6.1 and Chyann Gabriel at 5.1. Schmelz has 13 three-pointers (Shimizu has 11), with Malia Lee second on the team in rebounds (4.4). Kawaha leads the squad with 22 assists and 16 steals.
 
PacWest Numbers: Allie Navarette has worked her way onto a couple of Top 10 lists in the PacWest stat columns. She is third in rebounds (7.8) and sixth in free throw percentage (.820), while Mandi Kawaha is now eighth in steals (two a game).

Sunbirds, Sea Lions and Eagles: The 2020 portion of the schedule begins with Fresno Pacific visiting on Thursday (Jan. 2). The Sunbirds are 3-2 in the PacWest as they begin three games in Hawai`i. They started the conference slate 3-0 after victories over Academy of Art (95-63), Holy Names (54-46) and defending champion Azusa Pacific (71-66). Right before the break, they came up short against Concordia (81-69) and Biola (77-73). 5-foot-11 four-year starter Cassie Pisik is a handful, averaging 18 points and 10 rebounds a game, third and second respectively in the PacWest. She was a Third-Team All-PacWest pick last year. Pisik can also shoot from three-point range (41%), as can guard Jessica Malazarte with 2.3 treys per game, second in the league. The Sunbrids, who finished 19-10 a year ago, won both games in 2018-19 against the Vulcans and they lead the all-time series, 6-5. Point Loma is off to a 5-0 start in conference play and sits atop the PacWest. They trampled the Vulcans 78-46 in San Diego last month, paced by 20 points from Haylee Saurette and 18 from Carley-Hilliard Onjalise. The latter leads the conference in field goal percentage (.556) and paces the Sea Lions with 16 points a game. Point Loma is on an eight-game winning streak, which includes big wins over Azusa Pacific (82-77) and Biola (68-63). The Sea Lions lead the all-time series versus the Vulcans, 10-2. This will also be the second time this season that the Vulcans have played Biola, having lost to the Eagles 61-34 on Dec. 10 in La Mirada. In that game, Aysia Johnson led four Biola players in double figures with 12 points and nine rebounds. Biola's only loss since early November was to Point Loma in San Diego, otherwise they have won eight of their last nine games. Danita Estorga, a 6-foot-2 sophomore, paces the Eagles with 13.5 points and 7.2 rebounds a game. That win last month for the Eagles was the first in a short series history between the two teams, with UH Hilo leading all-time, 3-1.

What's Next: The Vulcans remain home for two more games after this long weekend, hosting Dominican on Jan. 9 and Notre Dame de Namur on Jan. 13. They then hit the road for a brief two-game trip, traveling to Azusa Pacific (Jan. 16) and Fresno Pacific (Jan. 18).
 
Around the PacWest: Point Loma (5-0), Hawaii Pacific (4-0) and Concordia (3-0) all got through 2019 undefeated in PacWest play. Biola is next (4-1), having only lost to Point Loma. Hawaii Pacific will host both Point Loma and Biola this week in Honolulu.
 
Rating the West: The final D2SIDA West Region poll of 2019 looked like this (records are current)—(1) Hawaii Pacific 9-1, (2) Alaska Anchorage 12-1, (3) Cal State San Marcos 10-1, (4) UC San Diego 8-3, (5) Azusa Pacific 9-3, (6) Point Loma 9-2, (7) Humboldt State 8-4, (T8) Cal State East Bay 10-3, (T8) Central Washington 7-4, (T10) Northwest Nazarene 8-3, (T10) Western Washington 7-3. Nationally in the WBCA poll, Alaska Anchorage is tenth, Hawaii Pacific is No. 14, Azusa Pacific is No. 17, UC San Diego is No. 22 and Cal State San Marcos is No. 24.

PacWest Poll: Despite definitely looking better on paper, the Vulcans didn't get much love in the Pacific West Conference Preseason poll, which looked like this. (1) Azusa Pacific, (2) Hawaii Pacific, (3) Point Loma, (4) Fresno Pacific, (5) Dominican, (6) Concordia (7), Biola, (8) Academy of Art, (9) Chaminade, (10) Hawaii Hilo, (11) Holy Names, (12) Notre Dame de Namur.

Last Year: The Vulcans finished 8-18 overall and 5-17 in the PacWest. Allie Navarette earned First Team All-PacWest honors and Second All-West Region laurels while averaging a school-record 19.8 points and 10.1 rebounds a game.

The Coach: Vulcan head coach David Kaneshiro begins his tenth season leading the Vulcan program. He previously spent four years as an assistant coach with the men's team at UHH, and has been the women's head coach at Blackburn and Webster. He also was an assistant at Stanislaus State.