HILO, Hawai'i – The Hawai'i Hilo men's basketball team continued with another strong bounce-back performance to notch a consecutive double-digit victory in Pacific West Conference play, this time winning 81-67 over Dominican Monday evening at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.
The Vulcans started hot out the gates to jump out to a 26-10 advantage midway through the first half, highlighted by a trio of three-point plays from Drew Yezbak. Hawai'i Hilo closed out the period going 6 of 6 from the field to cap the halftime buzzer with a 14-0 run.
With the help of a late 10-0 run in the final five minutes, Dominican was able to cut the Vulcans' lead to just 14 points but that was the lowest it would get as Hawai'i Hilo cruised to its 10th win of the season.
"Just trying to get back to playing assist-basketball. We got a reminder of how much we got to fight for playing together," Vulcans head coach Kaniela Aiona said. "It's a grind, it's a long season. Guys are going to get banged up here and there so we need guys to be ready to go when their number's called and tonight was a good example of that. Some guys had to step up and pick up some more minutes and they did well with that."
At the moment, the Vulcans (6-1) sit at No. 3 in the conference rankings behind Azusa Pacific (7-1) at No. 2 and unbeaten Point Loma Nazarene at the top.
By The Numbers
- Carlos Ramsey Jr. led the way with 21 points and five rebounds.
- Nadjrick Peat matched a season high of 16 points (7-8 FG) with four blocks and finished one rebound shy of a double-double.
- Kalique Mitchell followed with 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting to go along with seven assists and six boards.
- Darren Williams and Jarin Edwards nearly tallied double-doubles with eight points and nine assists, and eight points and seven rebounds, respectively.
- While the Vulcans took the edge in most statistical categories, the Penguins finished with a 9-17 turnover advantage, converting for a margin of 25-11 points.
- Marcus McCutchen (17), PJ Volz (12) and Davis Omari (10) led Dominican with double-digit scoring figures.
What's Next
Hawai'i Hilo moved to 10-2 overall (6-1 PacWest) as Dominican moved to an 8-7 record (5-4 PacWest).
The Vulcans will be back in action Thursday, Jan. 12 for a hoops doubleheader against Academy of Art (10-5 overall, 5-3 PacWest). The women will tip off at 5 p.m. followed by the men's game at 7:30 p.m. in the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.
The Penguins will hop over to O'ahu to play Chaminade and HPU at the end of this week.
Hawai'i Hilo and Dominican will match up again Jan. 27 in San Rafael, California.
