HILO, Hawai`i—UH Hilo had four players in double figures and led for the final 30 minutes of the game to deal visiting Dominican an 80-65 loss in women's basketball action on Thursday night at the Civic Auditorium.
The Vulcans, who have now won three of their first four games to start the 2020 calendar, improved to 3-5 in the Pacific West Conference and to 4-8 overall. Dominican, who had also won two of their last three games, fell to 5-8 on the year and to 2-5 in conference play.
Allie Navarette had 19 points and eight rebounds to lead the home team, but she had plenty of help.
Kim Schmelz added 16,
Sara Shimizu had 15 and
Mandi Kawaha dropped in 11 points and had eight boards.
Dominican's Jerusha Paine, the second leading scorer in all of NCAA Division II. Led the Penguins with 29 points. The 6-foot forward converted 13-of-16 free throws. Marisa Mondave had a double-double with 18 points and 10 boards.
The first quarter began with a lid on the basket, as neither team could find the range in the first four minutes. Then the action heated up over the back half of the quarter with a number of ties and lead changes, and a lot of baskets by Dominican's Paine. She had 12 points at the break, six of them at the free throw line. Still, the Vulcans had a 19-18 lead at the end of the quarter.
UH Hilo had a 6-0 run to start the second quarter, four of the points on runners in the paint by Kawaha. Later in the period, with UHH holding a 29-27 lead, the Vulcans then closed the quarter on a 12-4 run. Shimizu had seven points during that blitz, including a basket with two seconds left to make the count 41-31 at halftime.
Paine had 19 points at halftime for the Penguins and Shimizu had 11.
The Vulcans opened the third quarter on a 6-0 run to take a 17-point lead. They would push that margin to 21 (66-45) with a minute left in the quarter on a Navarette three-pointer to take a 66-48 lead into the final ten minutes.
Dominican made a run in the fourth quarter, 10-2, but they would get no closer than 11 points the rest of the way.
The Vulcans will wrap up this five-game homestand with a Monday night game at the Civic Auditorium versus Notre Dame de Namur. Start time is 5 pm.
