HILO, Hawai`i--Visiting Hawai`i Pacific took a big bite out of Hawai`i Hilo's Senior Day, and took a medium chomp out of their postseason playoff hopes with a 62-55 men's basketball victory on Saturday afternoon at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.

The Sharks kept their faint postseason hopes alive, improving to 8-12 in the Pacific West Conference and to 10-16 overall. The Vulcans are now 9-11 in conference play and 11-13 on the year. With the loss and Academy of Art's upset victory at Concordia (70-68), the Vulcans and Urban Knights are now tied for sixth place with two games remaining.

ART U, by virtue of their two wins over the Vulcans this year, hold the tiebreaker with UHH. Both are 9-11, with HPU and Fresno Pacific one game back of that last playoff spot at 8-12.

The Sharks got solid play inside from 6-foot-11 Chidozie Ndu (10 points, 15 rebounds) and 6-foot-10 Daniel Melifonwu (13 points, six rebounds). David Rowlands added 12 points, including six free throws in the final 1:32, and Ronald Blain had 11.

The Vulcans were led by 16 points each from Elisha Duplechan and Sasa Vuksanovic. Both had 13 second half points when the Vulcans made a run after digging a big first half hole. Kupaa Harrison added 11 and eight rebounds. 

The Sharks jumped out to an early lead soon after the opening tip off. They took a 12-2 lead at the 12:50 mark, thanks in part to a pair of three-pointers from Neema Namdar and poor Vulcan shooting. UHH hit just one of their first eight shots, and with moments to go in the half, they were just 4-of-21 from the field. The home team trailed 28-19 at halftime, having hit only one three-pointer while shooting 25 percent from the field.

HPU pushed their lead to 13 points just three minutes into the second half, but the Vulcans, namely Duplechan, began to catch fire. The 5-11 junior guard began filling up the stat sheet with a variety of jump shots and drives. He scored ten points in the first nine minutes of the second half. 

Vuksanovic then took his turn, often on passes from Duplechan. The 6-9 post scored on three straight possession to give the Vulcans their first lead of the game (41-40), and then at 43-40 after a steal and basket. 

The Sharks answered with a trey from Blain (43-43) and the squads traded leads for most of the final six minutes. Rowland hit a three and two free throws to put HPU up 54-53 with 1:32 to go, but Vuksanovic drove for a score moments later (55-54). 

But that would be the final basket of the night for the Vulcans. Ndu scored in the paint to make it 56-55, and the Vulcans final four possessions would result in missed shots, fouls, and Shark conversions at the free throw line. Hawaii Pacific capped the game on an 8-0 run.

"We've got two games left, and we have to look at it like we need to win both," said Vulcan head coach GE Coleman after the game. "The shots just didn't fall for us tonight. We played hard, and HPU defended us well, but we just couldn't get the ball to drop. We will get back to work tomorrow get ready for Chaminade and HPU again."

The Vulcans will head to Oahu for their final two regular season games of the year, taking on Chaminade on Thursday (7:30 pm) and Hawaii Pacific on Saturday (1 pm).