BYU–Hawaii men’s basketball team had a rough week back at home as they lost back-to-back games against Fresno Pacific and Dominican.
The Seasiders beat both Fresno Pacific and Dominican by identical 86-76 scores last week in California where the Seasiders went 3-0. The Seasiders were unable to repeat their success in California at home as they lost 97-72 and 78-68 respectively.
“These were both tough losses and puts us in a situation where every game in now that much more important,” said BJ Ford, a senior exercise and sports science major from Payson, Utah.
A furious second half comeback came up short for the Seasiders. Despite outscoring Dominican 47-37 in the second half, the Seasiders were unable to comeback from a 20-point first half deficit.
The Seasiders cut Dominican’s lead down to as much as three, but after a pair of three-pointers by Dominican, the Seasiders could not recover.
The Seasiders got off to their slowest start of the year as they were held to a season low of 21 points in the first half. Poor shooting, defensive struggles, and turnovers plagued the Seasiders as Dominican jumped out to take an early 16-6 lead.
The Seasiders were also playing without starting big man Ian Harward, who got injured in the game against Fresno Pacific. All of this added up to the Seasiders going into halftime down 41-21.
BYUH came out in the second half playing better on both sides of the ball. A string of runs, including a 10-2 run behind 3-points by Justin Yamzon and Tanner Nelson cut Dominican’s lead to 10 with 13 minutes remaining.
Although the Seasiders cut the lead down to as much as three, Dominican would go on a 6-2 run to push the lead back to 9. BYUH could not respond as they missed a number of three-point attempts and Dominican hit their free throws to close out the game. Senior Scott Friel led the team with 19 points and seven rebounds, while Yamzon added 5 assists.
Two days earlier it was a bad second half that lead to the Seasiders’ loss. The Seasiders were outscored 54-36 in the second half as Fresno Pacific walked away with the 97-72 win.
Friel led the team with 13 points and was just one rebound shy of a double double. Spencer Krannitz, who finished the game with 25 points and nine rebounds, led Fresno Pacific.
Despite shooting a poor 34.2 percent on the game the Seasiders were able to keep the game close until ten minutes left in the game. With Fresno Pacific beginning to pull away things just got worse for the Seasiders as starting big guy Ian Harward was injured in a collision with a Fresno Pacific player.
“We struggled to re-find our rhythm after they started getting a run on us, it was a tough loss to take but we have to put it behind us and move forward,” said Justin Yamzon, a junior studying exercise and sports science from Las Vegas, Nevada.
Fresno Pacific would extend their lead to as much as 28 as they pulled away from BYUH to get the win.With the back-to-back losses the Seasiders dropped from first to fifth place in the PacWest conference.
“These next couple of games are very important, they are both good teams and would be huge wins for us,” said Brody Berry, a sophomore exercise and sports science major from Alpine, Utah.
The Seasiders will look to get back on track as they face Academy of Art on the 19 and California Baptist on the 23.