Laie, HI — The Brigham Young University Hawaii men's basketball team completed their season Friday night with a 71-68 win over Hawaii Pacific. The Seasiders, who finished 14-11 overall and 6-6 in the Pacific West Conference, used an 11-0 run early in the second half to erase an eight-point deficit and held the lead the rest of the way. The Sea Warriors cut the deficit to one point four different times during the remainder of the game, but each time BYU-Hawaii withstood the challenge. Hawaii Pacific missed an opportunity to tie the game with under 20seconds to play when BYU-Hawaii's Austin Smylie blocked a three-point attempt by Rick Wilson and then again when Audrius Peciukas missed an off-balance three-pointer at the buzzer.
BYU-Hawaii opened up a seven-point lead midway through the first half but HawaiiPacific came back to take a 38-36 halftime lead. After the break, the Sea Warriors extended the lead by scoring the first six points of the half before the Seasidersmade their run and took the lead on a three-pointer by Eric Boyce, one of four he hit in the game.
Smylie, playing his last game as a Seasider on senior night, led BYU-Hawaii with16 points and eight rebounds. Boyce delivered 14 points and Paul Peterson also tallied 14 to go along with his six assists and three steals. BYU-Hawaii's two other seniors, Jason Solis and Vaughn Schouten scored seven and four points respectively in closing out their careers.
Peciukas led Hawaii Pacific with 19 points. Donnell Dobbins and Finis Harwellfinished with 13 each and Wilson scored ten points and grabbed ten rebounds.The Sea Warriors ended the season 8-19 overall and 3-9 in the conference.