(photo of Vulcan celebration courtesy of UH Manoa/Andrew Lee/Story by Russ Blunck)

HONOLULU, Oahu--Playing their fourth game in four nights, no problem. Having a tank full a gas for the whole 40 minutes, challenging. How about overtime?

UH Hilo scored six points in the final four seconds of regulation to force overtime and an eventual 86-79 upset victory over Northern Colorado to wrap up play at UH Manoa's tournament.

A basket by Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones with four second left, two made free throw and an intentional miss by Max Kunnert set the stage for a rebound basket by Erik Borg at the buzzer for a wild cap to regulation. The Vulcans would then go on to control the overtime period for the unlikely win over the Bears. 

UH Hilo went toe-to-toe with Northern Colorado all night. The Bears, a Division I team that plays in the Big Sky Conference, won their previous two games at the Outrigger Resort Rainbow Classic and was heavily favored to make it 3-0. The Vulcans lost two exhibition games at the Stan Sheriff Center against Hawaii and Pacific, but this one counted.

Boy did it ever. 

Kunnert was fouled with the Vulcans trailing by four points (75-71) with one second left. The freshman hit the first two free throws, and then intentionally missed the third. The ball bounced just off the right block and was grabbed by the 6-10 Erik Borg who hit a baby hook at the buzzer. It's was Borg's only basket of the night.

The Vulcans then outscored the Bears in overtime, 11-4, with scoring coming from four different Vulcan players. 

Freshman Donald McHenry led the Vulcans with 19 points, followed by Darren Williams with 18, six rebounds and four assists. Tait-Jones added 13 points and seven boards, Kameron Ng had 13 and Ethan Jetter had 11. Daylen Kountz led the Bears with 20 points and nine boards.

It was UH HIlo's fourth game in four nights, and there will be another--tomorrow (Sunday) they return home to take on Simpson (3 pm). In all to start the season, the Vulcans will play six games in seven days, also hosting Alaska Anchorage on Tuesday night at the Civic.

The Vulcans played the Bears tough from the tip. The teams traded leads through the first media timeout, with McHenry scoring three times (six points) and UNC missing only three total shots through the first eight minutes. The Bears led, 15-13.

But McHenry and the Vulcans came out on fire after the timeout. The freshman left-hander drilled a three and scored on a drive, Ng followed with two buckets to give UHH the lead, 24-23. A three-pointer by Kia`i Apele gave the surging squad a 27-23 lead at the eight-minute media timeout.

Jetter hit a trey to make it 29-23 with 7:14 to go in the half, the largest lead held by either team. UNC then went on a 8-0 run, capped by a 3-point play dunk by Knecht to take a 31-29 lead. In all, the run to 11-0 to give UNC a 5-point lead, but UHH fired back again with a pair of baskets by Ng and a trey by Kunnert to pull with two points at intermission, 38-36.

The Vulcans came out of the locker room and jumped to a 45-41 lead by the first media timeout. Two baskets by Tait-Jones, including a three-point play, fueled the run. Of course, the Bears countered and took a 52-50 lead at the 12-minute media timeout...The Bears would push their lead to seven points (61-54) with eight minutes left and would lead all the way to the final buzzer. 

Williams hit a key three-pointer with 15 seconds to play to pull the Vulcans within one point (71-69), but the Bears weren't missing free throws and had the four point lead with literally three seconds left.

UH Hilo scored nine straight points in overtime to seal the upset win, setting off a celebration on the court and later in the locker room.