Box Score HONOLULU – Whenever the Chaminade and Hawai'i Pacific men's basketball teams face off on the hardwood, throw records out the window. In yet another knockdown, drag out affair, the Silverswords outlasted the Sea Warriors, 96-87, in a Pacific West Conference game Saturday at McCabe Gym.
Freshman
Kiran Shastri poured in a career-high 37 points and junior guard
Lee Bailey tied his season high with 29 as the Swords scored their most points this season and improved to 4-3 overall and 2-0 in the Pac West, winning for the seventh time in the last eight meetings against the Sea Warriors. HPU fell to 3-2 and 1-1.
All but one of Shastri's field goals came from beyond 3-point range. The Orinda, Calif., native knocked down 8-of-16 triples and easily surpassed his previous career high of 21 points, set on Nov. 9 against Saint Martin's.
"(He) stepped up and was raining 3s all over the place," Chaminade head coach
Eric Bovaird said of his freshman shooting guard, who hit several shots from well beyond NBA range.
Bailey, meanwhile, scored in double digits for the fourth straight game, matching his point output set on Nov. 26 against then-11
th ranked Gonzaga at the EA Sports Maui Invitational.
"I count on Lee to step up, it's what he does," Bovaird said. "That's why he's started for me for three years now, so I can count on him for things. But it was a good win."
HPU jumped out to 19-9 lead 8 minutes in the game as the Sea Warriors' Justin Long scored 5 of his team-high 22 points and John Horowitz's two 3-pointers. Chaminade rallied back, taking its first lead of the game (30-29) at the 5:21 mark on Bailey's two free throws.
Shastri's 3-pointer with 39 seconds left in the half gave the Swords their largest lead of the first half at 41-37 going into the locker room.
Malte Ziegenhagen (18 points) would inch HPU closer, burying a 3-pointer just seconds into the second half, cutting the Sea Warrior deficit to 41-40.
The Swords would answer as Shastri's jumper and 3-pointer put the Swords up, 46-40 only a minute into the half. Then came a dizzying run for the Silverswords, as
Kuany Kuany's steal and layup put the Swords up, 48-40. Bailey then stole the subsequent inbounds pass, flipped the ball to Shastri on the left wing, who then buried a triple, putting the Swords up 51-40 with 18:12 left, prompting a Sea Warrior timeout and sending the McCabe crowd of 233 into a frenzy.
But HPU had a reply with Long hitting a 3, two Darry Jones Jr. free throws and a Farbod Farman bucket, reducing the deficit to 53-47. A 14-3 CUH run capped by a Shastri 3-ball gave the Silverswords their largest lead of the game at 67-52 with 11 minutes left. But the Sea Warriors still hung around, chipping away at the deficit, closing to 83-79 on Ziegenhagen's two free throws with two minutes left in the game.
Bailey then took over, scoring on a driving layup then hitting 3-of-4 foul shots to help ice the game. The Swords hit 11-of-12 from the free throw line to help seal it.
The game was virtually even statistically in field goals (24-21 CUH), 3-pointers (12-11 CUH), free throws (36-of-48 for CUH; 34-of-44 for HPU) and assists (10 each). The biggest disparities came with the Sea Warriors out-rebounding the Silverswords, 44-31, but Chaminade producing 51 bench points to HPU's 18. The game was also physical with 61 combined personal fouls and seven players fouling out.
Chaminade steps back to non-conference action next Saturday, traveling to Lihue, Kaua'i in their annual Neighbor Island tilt against the University of Hawai'i-Manoa at Kaua'i High School Gymnasium, the fourth Division I team the Swords face this season. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. and with live streaming audio available on goswords.com.
