Hawai`i Hilo (8-14/6-10 PWC) vs. Dixie State (16-6/13-3 PWC) Thursday (Feb. 16, 7:30 p.m.)
Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium/Live Stream/Live Stats/ at www.hiloathletics.com, radio ESPN 850

Hilo Headlines: The Vulcans won games last week at both of their home venues, out-shooting Fresno Pacific (97-92) at Vulcan Gymnasium and defeating BYU-Hawaii at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium (92-81). UH Hilo will return to the Civic one final time on Thursday when they host Dixie State.

So You're Saying There's a Chance?: With four games remaining on the schedule, the Vulcans sit in ninth place in the Pacific West Conference, eighth place among teams battling for the top six spots and the conference tournament berth that goes with it (Concordia is not yet eligible). UHH is 2.5 games behind Azusa Pacific (sixth place), with Dominican (seventh) 1.5 games in front of them. The Vulcans need to run the table and get a little help to qualify. They will play Dominican in their final game of the season, in Oakland.

Senior Night: Thursday's game against the Trailblazers will be Senior Night, and the Vulcans will honor Parker Farris after the game. Farris spent two years in a Vulcan uniform, scoring 870 points thus far and raining in 143 three-pointers. He has hit for 30 or more points in a game four times, with a career-high 36 points this year at BYU-Hawaii. He was named the PacWest Player of the Week after the Seasider game, a contest where he scored 22 points in the second half alone. As a senior, he is averaging 22.0 points a game, second best in the PWC, is shooting 87 percent from the free throw line and has knocked down 66 treys (3.0 a game).

Boarding Up the Civic: Hilo's Civic Auditorium has been the site of the two highest rebound totals in the PacWest this season. Back on Dec. 29, Randan Berinobis pulled down a school and conference record 24 boards against Northwest Indian College, including nine on the offensive end. On Saturday night against BYU-Hawaii, Brian Ishola grabbed 19 rebounds, seven on offense. That tied for the third highest rebound total in UHH school history. Here is a look at that list.

Top 10 UHH All-Time Single-Game Rebound List   
Player                                    Season                  Opponent                              Reb.
Randan Berinobis                  2016-17                 NW Indian School                  24
Marcus Owens                         1995-96                Chaminade                             20
Gene Arceneaux                      1985-86                Hawaii Pacific                         20
Brian Ishola                            2016-17               BYU-Hawaii                            19
Samuel Wilhoite                       2007-08               Dixie State                              19
Merriel Jenkins                        1996-97               Beloit (Ill.)                                18
Bill Walling                              1977-78               Vanguard                                 18
Nate Walker                             2015-16               Point Loma                              17
Justin Smith                            2010-11               Western Oregon                       17
Brandon Price                         2008-09               Warner Pacific                          17
Samuel Wilhoite                      2006-07               Notre Dame de Namur               17
 
News and Notes: Senior guard Parker Farris leads the Vulcans and is second in the PacWest in scoring at 22.0 points a game. He is third in the league in free throw percentage (.870), nailing 107 of 123 attempts. His 3.0 three-pointers a game is tied for second in the league. He scored 32 in the season opener against Simon Fraser, had 30 versus Seattle Pacific and 36 at BYU-Hawaii...North Dakota State transfer Brian Ishola averages 15.4 points and 8.6 rebounds a game, the latter leading the team. He is third in the PacWest Conference in boards per game. He has seven double-doubles on the season...Ryley Callaghan (11.0) and Darius Johnson-Wilson (9.4) are just on one side or the other of double figures...Callaghan leads the squad with 85 assists on the season...The Vulcans are shooting .737 from the free throw line, the third most accurate mark in the PacWest...Farris and Callaghan are the only Vulcans to start in all 22 games this season…Randan Berinobis has started in 19 of UHH's 22 games and his 6.5 rebounds is second on the Vulcans.

Cool Hand Callaghan: Junior point guard Ryley Callaghan had what was probably his best weekend of the season. Against Fresno Pacific he scored what was then a career-high 24 points and also dished out eight assists. During one series in the first half, he scored on four straight Vulcan possessions. He topped that point total two nights later against BYU-Hawaii, tallying 26 points. He nailed 12-of-13 free throws on the night, many of them coming in the final minutes to help seal the win.

Doubling Up: Brian Ishola posted his sixth and seventh double-doubles of the year in UHH's two wins. He played all 40 minutes against Fresno Pacific and finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Against the Seasiders, he had 24 points (one digit off his career best) and 19 rebounds. In the two games, he had 41 points and 31 rebounds.

Lights Out: The Vulcans ramped up the offense over the weekend, scoring 97 against the Sunbirds and 92 versus the Seasiders. More impressively, they shot 56 percent from the floor in the first half against FPU and were 7-of-12 from three-point range in the first 20 minutes. Against BYU-H, they knocked down 57 percent of their shots in the second half.
  
Head Coach GE Coleman: Vulcan head coach GE Coleman (36-62) is in his 4th season as the leader of the program. Inheriting a team that had won just six games he has steadily built the team into a PWC tournament contender. Prior to arriving on the Big Island, Coleman was the associate head coach at Central Washington for six seasons, and an assistant with the Wildcats for another five years prior to that. He was an assistant for two seasons at Eastern Washington. His assistant, Mark McLaughlin, is a former CWU standout who twice led the nation in scoring at over 27 points a game.
 
A Look Back: Last year, the Vulcans began the year on a horrific nine-game losing streak, but righted the ship enough to finish 9-11 in conference play (9-15 overall), just missing the Pac West Conference tournament by one game.

Dateline Dixie: Last week, Dixie State was in a virtual three-way tie for first-place in the PacWest with California Baptist and Hawaii Pacific. A loss to the Lancers on Saturday (70-59) dropped them one game back and also snapped a five-game win streak. Included in that run was a 81-72 win over the Vulcans in St. George on Jan. 28. The Trailblazers have a balanced attack, led by Trevor Hill's 14.7 points and 7.2 rebounds, and Weber State transfer Josh Fuller's 13.2 and 6.4 Dixie State leads the all-time series between the two teams (14-4) and have won the last two games. The Trailblazers will play one more year in the Pacific West Conference before moving to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) in 2018-19.

Pacific West Conference Standings
Team                                       PWC               Overall
Hawai`i Pacific                       14-2                 22-2
California Baptist                   14-2                 22-2
Dixie State                              13-3                 16-6
Chaminade                              12-6                 16-9
Concordia                               10-6                 14-10
Point Loma                             9-7                  13-10
Azusa Pacific                          9-8                  14-13
Dominican                               8-9                  9-14
Hawai`i Hilo                           6-10                 8-14
Academy of Art                      5-10                 6-15
Holy Names                            5-11                 6-18
Fresno Pacific                         4-12                 4-19
BYU-Hawaii                           3-13                 5-17
Notre Dame de Namur            2-15                 4-19