Farris Sets 3PT School Record in Vulcan Win

Parker Farris goes up for a shot over Fresno Pacific’s Spencer Krannitz on Monday. UH–Hilo photo.

Another hot shooting start propelled the University of Hawai’i at Hilo men’s basketball team to a third straight victory, defeating Fresno Pacific 98-90 at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.

Monday night, however, belonged to junior Parker Farris.

Farris knocked down nine three-pointers, breaking a school record that had held since Jay DeMaestri’s eight treys against Alaska-Fairbanks in 2008. His 17 three-point attempts also broke a school record, besting the 15 tried by Mick Corkeron against Hawai’i Pacific University in 1990 and DeMaestri against Grand Canyon in 2009.

“It felt like just another night,” Farris said after the game. “I got a few open looks at the start, and then Van [Lockett] found me a couple times when he could’ve probably taken it to the rack himself, but he knew I had the hot hand so he tried to find me. I’ve got to give some of the credit to my teammates for trying to find me.”

UH-Hilo (3-9 overall, 3-5 PacWest) got off to an 8-0 scoring run to start the game, similar to the 10-0 start last Thursday against Academy of Art. Farris stayed hot throughout much of the first half, draining eight of his three pointers in the first 14 minutes of the game. His eighth put the Vulcans up by 20, 44-24, with 6:10 left in the first half, putting the crowd of 421 in a frenzy.

He hit the record-breaking trey with 10:37 remaining in the game, battling tired legs and a marathon effort with a short bench, to give UH-Hilo a 75-52 lead.

“We all played big minutes, so at some point, it’s mind over matter, right? We all got leg sleeves on. We’re all going to the training room every day, but you gotta do what you gotta do. No excuses and nobody feels sorry for us,” Farris said.

UH-Hilo’s pace remained quick for much of the game, but unlike in Thursday’s win, it was much more controlled. At times in the first half, head coach GE Coleman demanded his players to run an offense and take care of the basketball. It allowed for quality shooting, as the Vulcans shot 49.2 percent (29-for-59) from the floor.

“I thought we got off to a good start, and after that, I wanted us to play defense, and also, with our depth right now, we’ve gotta be smart on when we run and how long we run to get through 40 minutes,” said Coleman, whose team was still without Nate Walker, who sat for a fifth straight game because of an undisclosed illness, and Darius Johnson-Wilson, who has only played in two games because of a leg injury.

Foul trouble plagued the Vulcans all evening, with three players fouling out. That left extra minutes for Maikai Gahan, a Waiakea High School graduate, and Anthony Canencia, a freshman from Oahu’s University Lab School. The pair combined to play 25 minutes, scoring six points.

Fresno Pacific (9-8, 4-6) trailed by as much as 25 in the second half, but battled back to single digits late in the game. Reserve guard Suhail Mohammadi drained three treys in the final half, including a key long-range shot with 1:15 to play that cut UH-Hilo’s lead to 92-85, the lowest it had been since the score was 8-2 early in the first quarter. UH-Hilo shot 9-for-14 from the free throw line in the last two minutes to hold the Sunbirds off at the end.

Salim Gloyd quietly put together a double-double performance for UH-Hilo, scoring 22 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. He shot 10-for-11 from the foul line. Hilo High School graduate Randan Berinobis added 17 points and seven rebounds, and Lockett dropped 14 points and seven assists.

Madison Higgins scored 23 points and hit five treys to lead Fresno Pacific. Roger Paul added 17 points before fouling out, T.J. Viney scored 12 points, and Mohammadi put in 11.

UH-Hilo will next face Dixie State University on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. The game can be heard on AM 850 in Hilo, AM 790 in Kona, and at ESPNHawaii.com

Fresno Pacific 37 53 – 90

Hawai’i Hilo 57 41 – 98