St. Martin’s Completes Two Game Sweep of UHH

The St. Martin’s Saints won the battle of the boards and got 60 points from its bench en route to an 80-53 blowout victory over the University of Hawai`i at Hilo Saturday afternoon.

It was the second meeting between the two teams in as many days. The Saints picked up a 59-45 win on Friday to open the back-to-back women’s basketball series.

Both teams altered its starting lineups prior to Saturday’s matchup. UH-Hilo started Hayley Reynolds and Thea Hanato-Smith for the first time this season, dropping leading scorer Kamie Imai and guard Whitney Edens to the bench. The move worked to open the game, as the Vulcans’ lineup kept St. Martin’s from hitting a field goal in the game’s first five minutes and won the early hustle rebounds.

“Just kinda looking for some energy and some defense and some toughness,” said UH-Hilo head coach David Kaneshiro after the game. “Not that the ones who didn’t start weren’t bringing it, but we felt those two did a nice job in recent games, so we decided to give them an opportunity.”

St. Martin’s (7-3) went to its bench after the first media timeout and got immediate results, breaking out an 18-4 scoring run over the next six and a half minutes to take a 19-9 lead. Krista Stabler, who started in Friday’s game, scored seven points off of the bench during the run.

MacKenzie Mangino broke the run with a layup to cut the Saints’ lead to 19-11 with 8:11 remaining in the half, but the Vulcans would not get any closer than that over the rest of the game.

UH-Hilo (2-5) trailed by as much as 18 points in the first half. The starting five worked that deficit down to 12 points just over three minutes into the second half. The Saints’ bench, however, would not let the game get away, as Angela Gelhar drained a three-pointer to bring the lead back to 15 with 15:55 remaining. Gelhar, like Stabler, was a starter in Friday’s game but moved to the bench Saturday and responded with 13 points.

St. Martin’s put the game away with a 12-0 run that catapulted the Saints’ lead to 68-43 with 7:52 remaining in the game.

“I thought St. Martin’s played well and shot the ball well and moved the ball really well against us,” Kaneshiro said. “I thought we did a better job offensively than last night moving it against the matchup zone. We certainly didn’t shoot it as well as they did, obviously.”

The Vulcans shot shot 34.6 percent (18-for-52) from the field, an improvement from the under 26 percent effort from Friday. The Saints, however, shot 42 percent and went to the free throw line 45 times, making 34 of those shots.

All of St. Martin’s double-digit scorers came from the bench. Stabler led the way with 18 points, six rebounds, and four assists. Megan Wiedeman added 15 points and six rebounds. Liz Mills contributed 12 points and five rebounds. The Saints out-rebounded UH-Hilo 42-31.

For the second straight game, Mangino led the Vulcans in scoring with 11 points on 5-for-10 shooting.

UH-Hilo returns to conference play Saturday with a road matchup at BYU-Hawai`i. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. from the Cannon Activities Center.

St. Martin’s 39 41 – 80

Hawai`i Hilo – 22 31- 53