AZUSA, Calif.—A frigid beginning turned out to be too much to overcome for the UH Hilo men's basketball team during a Thursday night loss to Azusa Pacific at the Felix Events Center, 88-70.
The loss, coupled with Academy of Art's win over Notre Dame de Namur tonight, drops the Vulcans one game back of the Urban Knights for the sixth-place slot in the Pacific West Conference standings. UH Hilo is now 9-11 in the PacWest and 11-13 overall (AAU is 10-10).
Azusa Pacific gained revenge on the Vulcans for a loss in Hilo earlier this season, and improved to 17-10 overall and to 14-6 in conference play.
Hawai`i Hilo has two games remaining, both of them at home next week. They will play Notre Dame de Namur (1-24) on Tuesday, and then wrap up the regular season on Saturday against Chaminade (14-5). Academy of Art plays Azusa Pacific on Thursday and Biola on Saturday.
Kupaa Harrison had career highs in a Vulcan uniform with 23 points and ten rebounds, also his first UHH double-double.
This one got away from UH Hilo pretty quickly. They missed 18 of their first 21 shots and trailed 29-9 twelve minutes into the contest. The Cougars pushed their lead to 37-13 later in the half before heading to the locker room ahead at the break, 41-22. The Vulcans hit only one-of-eight treys in the first 20 minutes and converted just 30 percent of their shots.
UH Hilo made a couple of runs at the fourth-place Cougars in the second half, one on a 10-0 blitz that was capped by a
James Griffin three-pointer to cut the deficit to 48-36. Twice, baskets by
Denhym Brooke sliced it to 12 points again at 52-39 and 56-43, but APU countered and pushed their lead back out of reach.
The Vulcans shot 37 percent from the field for the game, including 25 percent from behind the arch (6-for-24). The Cougars made 56 percent of their shots and held a 47-28 rebound edge on their opponents.
Joining Harrison in double figures was
Larry Bush and Brooke with 13 points each, and Griffin who had ten.
Cougar point guard Darien McClain had 26 points and 12 assists, hitting 12-of-12 free throw attempts. Jake Spurgeon (22 points, 12 boards) and Selom Mawaugbe (17 and 11) had double-doubles for APU.
The Vulcans now host the Argonauts (Tuesday) and Silverswords (Saturday). If the Vulcans can find a way to pull back into a tie with Academy of Art, UH Hilo holds the tie-breaker for the final conference tournament slot.
