Box Score HILO, HI – Chaminade and UH-Hilo were involved in another shootout in UHH Gymnasium and it took over ninety points for the second straight year for the winner to earn the victory. In another recurring theme eerily similar to January 2011, a Silversword point guard had a standout performance on the Big Island to get CUH to 4-0 in the conference.
Last year, it was Silversword star
Steven Bennett leading CUH to a 98-94 win with 37 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Fast-forward to 2012 and it was Chaminade freshman point guard
Lee Bailey's turn to lead the Swords to victory.
In only his eleventh college game, Bailey (Detroit, MI/Detroit Country Day) led all scorers with 24 points; including the go-ahead jumper with less than two minutes remaining that put CUH ahead for good at 88-86. After a UH-Hilo three-pointer by CJ Brown cut the Silversword lead to one point at 90-89, both teams failed to score on their next possession. Junior
Waly Coulibaly, (Bamako, Mali/Patterson) then calmly hit two free throws after being fouled to make it a three-point game at 92-89 with just three seconds left. The Vulcans failed to score on their possession and Chaminade left the gym with a 92-89 win.
CUH got going early as a
Bennie Murray jumper gave the Swords a 20-5 lead with 11:57 remaining in the opening half. It was Chaminade's largest lead of the night. The Vulcans never led in the contest. CUH led by four, 47-43 at intermission.
The Swords had five players score in double figures, led by Bailey's 24. Junior guard
Bennie Murray was impressive in the win with 20 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists and fellow junior
Dominique Cooks (Wollongong, AUS/Holy Spirit) stuffed the stat sheet with 10 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists. All PacWest forward
Matt Cousins (Santa Rosa, CA/Cardinal Newman) added 14 points and 7 rebounds, while
Waly Coulibaly added 12 points, including the game-clinching free-throws.
Coach Bovaird commented following the contest: “We played well offensively tonight. UH-Hilo really competed hard and did not go away. Our guys did a great job passing the basketball. We had 18 assists to only 9 turnovers. We haven't had many nights with stats like that. Our offense is really getting better and we know we have some work to do defensively.”
The Swords won the rebounding battle 34-32. Chaminade was stingy protecting the basketball, turning the ball over just nine times on the contest. CUH shot 53% while the Vulcans shot 56% from the floor on the game.
UH-Hilo was led by CJ Brown with 20 points.
Chaminade heads California to Dominican in San Rafael, CA on January 19th. Tip is set for 7:30 PM PT.
With the win, the Swords move to 6-5, 4-0 in PWC while Hawaii-Hilo moves to 7-6, 1-4 PWC.
