HONOLULU, Hawai'i– The UH Hilo men's basketball team (11-9, 7-6 PacWest Conference) worked together as a unit in their 89-70 win over Hawai'i Pacific (3-17, 0-13 PacWest) in the Shark Tank. 

"The guys played unselfishly tonight and did a nice job of passing the ball and finding the open guy," said head coach Kaniela Aiona. 

The Vulcans' bench contributed 36 points, largely because of the offensive production of Jamie Strong. Strong led the UH Hilo offensive attack with a career and court high of 25 points. Strong was 7-for-12 behind the arc, just three treys away from making a new Vulcan Single Game All-Time record. 

"Jamie brings fire power," stated Aiona. "He is capable of doing this on any given night. He has a special skill of being able to shoot the ball. I was happy that he had a good night which was a part of our success. The guys were finding him, giving up shots to give him a look." 

The Vulcans' shined in the statistics. As a team they shot 51 percent in the field, 54 percent from downtown, and 64 percent from the charity stripe. They put up their most assists in one game for this season, dishing out 20.

UH Hilo also made their most steals in one game for this season, swiping 17. This makes their team tied for fourth in the All-Time Hawai'i Hilo Team Single Game Records.  

Capitalizing on Turnovers…The Vulcans scored 29 points off the Sharks' 23 turnovers, while only giving up 11 turnovers of their own. 

Falling Short on the Glass…The one place that HPU did beat the Vulcans was on the boards. Hawai'i Pacific collected 42 rebounds to UH Hilo's 28 with 15 offensive rebounds to UHH's nine. 

Vulcan Leaders…POINTS: Strong 25, Donald McHenry 20, Kameron Ng 16; ASSISTS: Max Kunnert 5, Ng 4, Kia`i Apele 3; REBOUNDS: Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones 6, Kunnert 4, Erik Borg, Steven Hubbell, Strong 3; STEALS: McHenry, Tait-Jones, Hubbell 3, BLOCKS: Borg 2.

Up Next…The Vulcans play next tomorrow (Feb. 9) against Chaminade at 7:30pm HST in the McCabe Gymnasium.