Box Score PHOENIX, AZ– With Grand Canyon moving on to the Western Athletic Conference starting in 2013-14, Chaminade faced the 'Lopes in their final PacWest Conference affair this evening in GCU Arena.
The Swords got out to an early 7-3 lead after sophomore guard
Lee Bailey (Detroit, MI/Detroit Country Day) connected twice from the charity stripe with 17:09 remaining in the first half. Grand Canyon had the scored knotted at 16-16 before a three by senior
Waly Coulibaly (Bamako, Mali/Patterson Prep) helped Chaminade regain the advantage.
The 'Lopes responded with a 13-0 run to lead 29-19 with just under six minutes left in the half. CUH then answered with a 13-5 run to cut the lead to three points before GCU's Brad Carroll nailed a three-pointer just before the first half time expired and GCU took a 38-32 lead into the break.
Lee Bailey led Chaminade with 8 first half points, while the 'Lopes Braylon Pickrel had 12 points at intermission. The Swords were out-rebounded 19-13 in the half, but were a perfect 10-10 from the free throw line to stay close to Grand Canyon.
Grand Canyon got off to a good start after the break as the 'Lopes extended their halftime lead to 57-43 following a Brad Carroll three with 10:43 remaining in the contest. GCU led by ten points at 61-51 with just over five minutes remaining after CUH senior
Bennie Murray (Fairfield, CA/ Will C. Wood) completed a three-point play with 6:02 left. Following the Chaminade score, GCU looked to stall out the contest. A 17 ft. top of the key bank-shot from Grand Canyon's Jerome Garrison at the end of the shot clock helped the cause and gave GCU a twelve point lead with five minutes left.
The 'Lopes held on down the stretch and won, 75-64. Chaminade was out-rebounded 34-27.
Junior forward
Rhys Murphy (Sydney, Australia/Barker) finished with 9 points as did
Tyree Harrison (San Bernardino, CA/Cajon) for CUH. Harrison also added 8 rebounds in defeat.
Bennie Murray added 11 points for the Swords.
Chaminade shot 40% from the field and 30% from three, making 7 three-pointers.
Grand Canyon was led by Brad Carroll with 16 points.
Chaminade senior De'Andre Haskins (Long Beach, CA/Jordan) and freshman
Kevin Hu (Taipei, Taiwan/Songsan), both standouts in the 2012 EA Sports Maui Invitational, were again unable to play due to injury.
Coach Bovaird talked about the defeat: "Grand Canyon has a tough, deep team. They are ready to make the transition to NCAA Division I. Our team played well through stretches, but we gave up way too many second chance points. We have two tough ones coming up soon in Cedarville (OH) and Hawaii, so we need to improve fast."
The Swords move to 3-5 on the year and 0-2 in the PacWest. The Antelopes move to 9-2 and 2-0 in the PacWest. Chaminade is back in action on December 14
th in McCabe Gym. The Swords will face Cedarville (OH) at 7:30 PM HT.
