HILO, Hawai’i — Division II Hawai’i-Hilo, looking to break a 25-game losing streak in the Big Island Invitational, had LSU down six with just over three minutes to play in the consolation semifinals Saturday night at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.
But the Vulcans turned the ball over three straight times and allowed LSU to score the last eight points to win the game, 64-62, on a Ronald Dupree dunk with nine seconds to play to allow the Tigers to literally escape back to its Hilo hotel with the win.
With the win, LSU will play for a trophy on Sunday, playing for the consolation championship (fifth place), against Mercer at 3:30 p.m. CST. Mercer was a 72-61 winner earlier in the day over South Carolina State.
The game will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Network and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net.
The rally by the Tigers erased a sometimes listless 36 minutes of play in which it was to determine how hard the LSU team really wanted the game as the Division II school and its 561 fans in the Auditorium began to sense the upset in the game’s final minutes.
Down 62-56, Antonio Hudson made two free throws to cut it to 62-58. Hilo turned it over on its next possession and Hudson drove for a lay in to cut it to 62-60. Hawai’i turned it over again as the game entered the final two minutes, but in between a missed UHH free throw, Jermaine Williams would be called for a travel at the 1:34 mark and then he lost the ball out-of-bounds with 1:13 to play.
Hawai’i would come down and turn the ball over once again, this time leading to a Hudson jumper following an LSU timeout with 26 seconds to play to tie the game at 26 all. The Vulcans would unbelievably give up the ball again as Hudson stole the ball and as he reached the LSU three-point circle slipped and fell to the ground. The freshman then gave the ball to Collis Temple and the winning play was on.
“He got the ball to me and I saw (Williams) streaking down the left baseline,” Temple said. “I got him the ball and he was double teamed and he was able to drop it off underneath to Dupree who was able to dunk it down. We won, but we’ve got to be better than this.”
That still left nine seconds on the clock and LSU up two, a similar position to the day before when the Tigers lost to Weber State at the buzzer. The Vulcans came down looking for David LaQua or Brady Hyde to take the final shot and Hyde got a decent look for a three from the left side from 22 feet, but it hit the side iron and bounced away giving LSU the win.
“The last six or eight minutes we decided to guard and we defended a lot better and got them to turn the ball over. Antonio Hudson was outstanding I thought for a freshman. He did pretty well (Friday) and played well again (Saturday) and made some big plays down the stretch. Ronald Dupree finally got it going a little bit. But we are a ways away from where we need to be to beat really good teams.”
Dupree led LSU (3-1) with 17 points and 12 rebounds, while Hudson added 16 points and Temple 11 for the Tigers. Prather led Hawai’i Hilo (2-2) with 18 points, while David LaQua added 15 and Brady Hyde 11.
The day did not get off to a good start for LSU as the Tigers opened 0-for-6 from the floor to go with a couple of possessions with no shot at all. But the problem was on the other end as the Vulcans in the same period were scoring seven points to go up 7-0 at the 17:21 mark of the first half. So that put LSU in the position of trying to play catch up almost from the start of the game.
Torris Bright, in foul trouble the entire game, finally got LSU on the board at the 16:52 mark to make it 7-2, but Hawai’i-Hilo, keeping the pressure on, twice built the lead back to seven points, the last at 15-8 on a Kyle Bartholomew bucket. The Tigers were down 20-14 before LSU went on its best offensive run of the opening half as Hudson and Brad Bridgewater scored back-to-back goals before Dupree came out of a rebounding scrum under the bucket to tie the game at 20-20 in the final five minutes.
LSU made it an 8-0 run, taking its first lead of the half, 22-20, when Collis Temple score with 3:21 to play in the half. LSU would build the lead to 25-22, before the Vulcans came back, tying the game at 25-25 on a Hyde bucket. The game was tied at 27-27 on two Charlie Thompson free throws with five seconds left and again the LSU defense was faulty in the final seconds as LaQua took a pass and drove to the goal. He was fouled by Jason Wilson at the buzzer and LaQua made two free throws to give the Vulcans the lead, 29-27, at the half. LSU shot just 11-of-30 from the field in the first half, compared to 47.6 percent (10-of-21) for UHH.
The Tigers continued to struggle as the second half started, as Ryan Hogue and Prather scored back to back to give Hilo its biggest lead of the game, 40-32, at the 14:07 mark. But then LSU found it’s only sign of life. With the post playing near midcourt, LSU’s Bridgewater made a steal and drove for the goal, only to be intentionally fouled. Bridgewater made both free throws and then Temple hit a trey to give LSU a five-point possession.
The Tigers would score the next two buckets, including an 18-footer from Hudson to give LSU its first lead of the second half on a 9-0 run at 41-40 with 12:03 to play. The Vulcans got the momentum swing back as Hyde hit two consecutive three-pointers to pus the lead back to UHH to six, 46-41, with 11:19 to play.
“We feel fortunate to win the game against a well-coached Hawai’i Hilo team,” said Brady. “At the press conference Thursday, the Hawai’i Hilo coach (Jeff Law) said his best chance to win was on the second day because the team that lost was disappointed about playing in the afternoon against a Division II team and his team would be excited to play a Division I team. They played really well and outplayed our guys for the most part. We played well enough to find a way to win at the end and we feel fortunate to do that.”