SAN DIEGO - Sterling Somers and Vince Boumann each posted double-doubles as the Point Loma men's basketball team used a plnu-28 advantage on the glass to defeat Hawaii Hilo, 87-73.
 
The win kept Point Loma (13-9, 9-6 PacWest) firmly in the fifth spot for the PacWest Conference tournament. The Sea Lion are two games up on Azusa Pacific for the second-to-last spot in the tournament, and two games back of Chaminade in the win column from being able to move up to No. 4. The loss dropped Hawaii Hilo to 5-16 and 4-10 in the PacWest.
 
Josh Rodriguez led all scorers with 21 points and nine assists. Somers recorded her first career double-double as he set new career-highs with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Six of those boards came on the offensive glass as Point Loma had nearly as many offensive rebounds (21) as Hawaii Hilo had total rebounds (23). Boumann posted his PacWest-leading 10th double-double of the season, and sixth in his last eight games, with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Skyler White also came off the bench with a career-high 13 points, and three of the Sea Lions' five 3-pointers.
 
The teams traded leads throughout the first half until White knocked down his first 3-pointer of the game right before the half to put the momentum in the Sea Lions' corner as they went into the locker room leading 35-32. Then PLNU went on to outscore UHH 30-16 in the first 10 minutes of the second half to open up the game (65-48).
 
"The first half we really struggled offensively with Josh Rodriguez and Tanner Lancona both on the bench with two fouls," explained Point Loma head coach Ryan Looney. "We weren't shooting it well and were just struggling finding ways to score, while turning the ball over way too much.
 
"We found our rhythm and opened up the game in the second half because of our rebounding. We didn't shoot well enough and turned it over too often but we were plus-28 on the glass."
 
Led by Boumann and Somers, PLNU posted its best single-game rebounding differential in the coach Looney era, outboarding the Vulcans 51-23. The 21 offensive rebounds helped PLNU outscore UHH 33-12 on second chance points and 48-28 on points in the paint. That effort on the boards also helped PLNU overcome losing the turnover battle 17-8.
 
"When you look at the stat sheet at the end of the day we want to make sure we shoot it more than our opponents, and even though we turned the ball over 17 times, because of the rebounding we got six more shots than they did," said Looney.
 
Randan Berinobis came off the bench to led five Vulcans in double-figures with 16 points and six rebounds. PLNU held the PacWest's second-leading scorer, Farris Parker (22.4 ppg), to just 14 points on 5-of-15 shooting.
 
Point Loma will now prepare to welcome in Azusa Pacific on Thursday, Feb. 9 to close out the 2016-17 home schedule. PLNU will also be looking to get revenge on a Cougar team which defeated the Sea Lions 81-74 on Jan 16, snapping their season-best five-game winning streak. The game will tipoff at 7:30 p.m.
 
"I don't think we are looking at Azusa Pacific different than any other opponent, we just want to make sure we are as prepared as possible for the next game on our schedule," Looney explained. "It is also Senior Night for our five seniors so we want to make sure we put our best foot forward for them."