HILO — The University of Hawaii at Hilo’s Dominique Campbell came off the bench to rebound and defend.
That’s his role. Others are here now to score.
But it was Campbell’s offense the Vulcans couldn’t have lived without Tuesday night, and it was the reason he rarely left the floor at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium
With his front-court teammates, including Tre Johnson, saddled in foul trouble, Campbell scored 14 points as UH-Hilo beat Washburn 69-60 in a feisty contest at the Vulcans Thanksgiving Classic.
“I’m don’t care if I’m on the the bench, if (Tre) is in there he’s doing good,” Campbell said. “(Tonight) I had to pick up the slack with our bigs on the bench.”
With Johnson and Darius Johnson-Wilson playing limited minutes in foul trouble and guard Darnell Williams struggling to find his shot, the Vulcans were able to maintain their lead in the second half using just starter Marcello Campbell (14 points, seven rebounds) and four reserves.
“Coach (GE Coleman) said we’ve got 10 people and we can all play,” Campbell said. “The starters are the top five, but when the other five come out we’re still going to play, and that’s why we have a good team.”
Guard Vandyon Lockett added 12 points off the bench as UH-Hilo (2-1) got 34 points from its reserves.
Johnson came in averaging 24 points a game, but struggled to get into rhythm and had more fouls (two) than points (one) in the first half. The 6-foot-8 junior made five free throws late and added a layup to score 12 points.
“We always talk about the next guys stepping up, and hopefully we have depth where we find a guy to step up each and every night,” Coleman said. “I thought (Dom) was the MVP of the game. I have a tough time believing we win that game without Dom.”
UH-Hilo also likely couldn’t have won without its sizeable advantage in trips to the free-throw line. The Vulcans made 30 of 45 free throws. The Ichabods (2-3) were 10 of 25.
Coleman had to play peacemaker at midcourt with under a minute left when tempers flared following a loose ball. The Vulcans’ Randan Berinobis was ejected.
“This shows we can play ugly and still win,” Coleman said.
There was little that could tarnish Dominique Campbell’s outing. The 6-7 forward played 30 minutes and collected six rebounds, finishing 4 of 6 from the floor and 6 of 7 from the line.
He converted a three-point play with 13:12 remaining in the second half as the Vulcans matched their largest lead, 43-34. UH-Hilo grabbed its first double-digit advantage when Dominique Campbell took a long outlet pass from Yevgeniy Dyachenko and made a layup underneath the basket.
“Being a senior, now we’ve got Tre, Darius, Marcello, Van, scorers,” Campbell said. “That’s what we need. We didn’t have that last year. I’m an active player, and they’re the scorers. Now we can win more games and get to the NCAA Division II regionals.”
Washburn whittled the lead down to four on a jumper by Algie Key (11 points), but the Vulcans salted the game away at the line. Alex North and Christian Ulsaker also scored 11 points for the Ichabods.
The Vulcans host Seattle Pacific at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Civic after a 5 p.m. contest between Northwest Indian College and Washburn.