HILO, Hawai`i--Junior do-everything forward Kupaa Harrison scored eight points in the final three minutes of play to help the Vulcans hold off an upset-minded Dominican Penguin team, 83-79 on Sunday night at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.

The win comes on the heals of two tough losses at home to Biola and Academy of Art, and evened UH Hilo's record to .500 on almost all accounts--2-2 on the four-game homestand, 10-10 overall and 8-8 in Pacific West Conference play. Dominican is now 7-17 on the season and 3-15 overall.

The UH Hilo win, coupled with Academy of Art's loss to Hawai`i Pacific tonight, allowed the Vulcans to move back past the Urban Knights in the conference standings by a half-game (sixth PacWest tournament slot).

"It feels good to get the monkey off our back and win a close game at home," Vulcan head coach GE Coleman said after the game. "We knew this would be a different game than before, and we just had to find a way to win, and we did."

When the Vulcans played the Penguins back in January in northern California, UH Hilo forced Dominican into a school-record 38 turnovers in a 75-54 rout. Tonight's game was much different.

It was close throughout, with neither team having a lead larger than six points all night. Dominican led at the end of the first half (36-35), and then held a small lead for most of the second half. A pair of James Griffin free throws with just over five minutes left gave the lead back to the Vulcans at 69-68.

Larry Bush's basket kept the Vulcans in front (73-71) with 3:34 on the clock, and the home team wouldn't trail again--although it would take some heroics by Harrison to keep the lead on the board. The Kailua native inbounded the ball off a Penguin defender and right back to himself, scoring an easy basket and he was fouled with 2:18 remaining (78-74). He hit a jumper with under a minute to go and added one more free throw for good measure to help clinch the game.

Harrison also led the Vulcans in rebounds with seven. Bush led squad in scoring with 19 and he had six rebounds. Griffin added 16 points and six boards, and Jordan Graves had ten points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Cedric Thomas led the Penguins with 20 points and nine assists. Christian Futch had a double-double with 16 points and 11 boards.

The Vulcans now embark on their toughest road trip of the year, playing four games in southern California over the course of nine days, beginning with a Feb. 14 clash with first-place Point Loma in San Diego.