(photo by Rick Ogata)

HILO, Hawai`i--Vulcan freshman Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones scored a career-high 26 points to help his team sort through a cool offensive night during 64-53 win over Hawaii Pacific on Thursday at Vulcan Gymnasium.

The victory was the seventh straight for the Vulcans, who improved to 9-1 on the season. The win means many things for head coach Kaniela Aiona and his team, including....

*Going undefeated at home in this shortened pandemic season (6-0)
*They won the Hawaii Pod with a 9-1 PacWest record (with two games to go)
*And they are still very much in every conversation about qualifying for the NCAA tournament.

"It wasn't always pretty, but our guys found a way to win again at home," said Aiona after the game. "We took care of business. We showed a toughness playing four games in six days, and none of them were blowouts. It was a grind and we were able to come away with four wins during that stretch."

The Vulcans survived a cold shooting night (40 percent), and they went icy during a stretch of the first half that saw them score only one field goal in over 12 minutes. 

The good news was, UHH's defense was causing havoc on their opponents.

The Sharks scored just 14 points in the first half, and three of those came on a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer that dropped through. UHH influenced HPU into 11 first half turnovers and 25 percent shooting and went into the locker room with a 26-14 halftime lead. 

The Vulcans heated up in the second half. Sasa Vuksanovic, who would finished with his seventh double-double (16 points, 12 rebounds), scored six points during a Vulcan blitz that gave them a 40-23 lead. The Sharks would battle back, but it was Tait-Jones who then went to work with 15 second-half points. The freshman from New Zealand scored from the free throw line (6-of-6), from three-point range (2-of-3) and on a variety of moves around the basket. He was 9 of 14 from the field.

"Aniwaniwa had a huge second half," Aiona confirmed. "As a whole, we weren't as efficient on offense as we need to be, but we had flashes with Aniwaniwa and Sasa that was enough to pull us through."

The Vulcans scored 38 second half points, but Aiona agreed that it was the first half defense that won the day.

"Our defense was tremendous in the first half," the first-year head coach added. "I credit HPU because they made adjustments at halftime on offense, but we did a nice job at the free throw that held them off, probably our best game of the year in that category."

The Vulcans hit 15 of 18 charity attempts (83 percent), which helped compensate for 40 percent shooting from the field and 25 percent from three-point range. 

In addition to Tait-Jones and Vuksanovic's numbers, Jordan Graves was in double figures with ten points, hitting 3 of 6 from behind the arch. Graves also had seven rebounds and five assists.

Colton Martin led the Sharks with 14 points. HPU played without their leading scorer, David Rowlands, who was injured early in Wednesday's game.

UH Hilo will now get a couple of days off before getting ready for their final two regular season games at Chaminade next Friday and Saturday. 

"We get a little rest, and then get ready for a couple of big games next week," Aiona said. "This is what you play for, an opportunity to go to the postseason."

UH Hilo's last trip to the NCAA tournament was in 2004-05.

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