Box Score HILO, HI (March 1, 2014) – With the Hawai'i Pacific Men's Basketball Team (14-12, 9-11) unable to effect its seed in the Pacific West Conference Tournament with a win or loss and Hawaii Hilo (7-19, 4-16) playing its final game at home on senior night, many pundits thought this was a trap game. It turned out that way, with HPU falling 78-76.

The Vulcans, who started off league play 0-16 before winning the final four games, led all but three minutes of the first half. Still, it was far from a dominant half as HPU trailed by just four points at halftime.

Colfax Nordquist tied the game shortly into the second half and from there it was a see-saw battle. With 7:19 to play, Hilo opened up an eight-point lead at 64-56. About two minutes later, HPU had whittled the deficit to one after a Farbod Farman bucket. However, UHH bounced back and extended its lead back to six-points over the next minute and a half.

Darry Jones Jr. then took over for the Sea Warriors. An old-fashioned three-point play with 2:36 remaining brought HPU to within three. After a defensive stop, Jones Jr. put back his offensive rebound to make it a 74-73 game with 1:04 to play. After both teams squandered opportunities, Hilo converted to hold a 76-73 lead with just 30 ticks left on the clock. It was Jones Jr. again who nailed a three-pointer with 15 seconds to go to tie the game.

Alas, it was to be the Vulcans' night. Dominique Campbell hit a shot at the buzzer to win the game.

Jones Jr. had a team-high 20 points. Leif Rodney (16), Farman (16), and Justin Long (13) all also reached double-figures in scoring. Farman added 11 rebounds and two blocks as Jones Jr. also led his club with four assists.

HPU will now face Dixie State in the first round of the PacWest Tournament on Thursday at 1:00 p.m. PST in San Diego.