HILO, Hawai`i--Defensive minded UH Hilo held high scoring Azusa Pacific well below their scoring average but it wasn't enough to keep the No. 3 nationally ranked Cougars from winning their 13th straight game on Thursday afternoon at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium, 67-54.

Pacific West Conference leader APU improved to 16-1 on the season and to 12-0 in conference play. The Vulcans dipped to 8-7 on the season and to 5-6 in the PacWest. 

One of those wins in the 13-game streak for the Cougars was against the Vulcans on January 22 in Azusa, 79-58. But this game was much different with the Vulcans giving the league leaders all that they could handle through the first three and half quarters of play.

The game got off to a rough start for the Vulcans when they missed their first six shots of the contest. But the home team righted the ship and scored seven straight points to take a 7-6 lead after a Mandi Kawaha three-pointer. The teams would go on to trade leads throughout the quarter, six different times. APU scored the last basket of the first quarter to take a 15-14 lead heading into the second period.

The Cougars looked more like the offensive team that leads the conference in scoring at 81 points a game in the second quarter. They put up 20 points and led by as many as 10 before Sara Shimizu's left-handed runner at the buzzer made it 35-28 at the halftime break.

But UH Hilo didn't go away. A 7-0 run pulled the Vulcans within five points twice in the third quarter. A Laura Pranger three-pointer for APU with five seconds to go made it a 10-point game heading into the final period, 47-37. In the fourth quarter, the Vulcans made one last burst, pulling to within six points (49-43) on a three-point play by Heaven Samayoa-Mathis with 6:41 to go. 

Nonetheless, the Cougars answered again pulling away for their biggest leads of the contest in final minutes of the game. The Vulcans scored just one field goal from the 4:20 mark to 1:20 left. The 69-54 final score was APU's second biggest lead of the contest.

Kawaha finished ten points, four assists, two blocks and two steals for UH Hilo. Shimizu paced the Vulcans with 12 points before fouling out late in the game. Kayla Shaw led four APU players in double figures with 19 points. 

The Vulcans next head to Honolulu for make-up games at Hawaii Pacific and Chaminade on Feb. 8 and 9.