Box Score HONOLULU, HI–Chaminade fell to Hawaii Pacific 88-82 in overtime this evening and now press on to postseason play in the Inaugural Pacific West Conference Basketball Tournament to be held at Azusa Pacific in the Felix Event Center on March 7
th-9
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The contest was intense to start as halfway through the first half, the Sea Warriors led by the smallest of margins, 19-18. Chaminade went on a run and led 34-26 following a three by freshman
Kevin Hu (Taipei, Taiwan/Songsan) off an assist by senior guard De'Andre Haskins (Long Beach, CA/Jordan) with under four minutes left in the first half. Senior
Waly Coulibaly (Bamako, Mali/Patterson Prep) promptly hit another three as did Hu and the Swords earned a fourteen point lead, 40-26. A 10-0 run by HPU cut the CUH lead to 40-36 with under a minute left in the half. CUH led at the half, 41-36.
Senior
Bennie Murray (Fairfield, CA/ Will C. Wood) led all scorers at the half with 11 points, while De'Andre Haskins had 10 points and 7 rebounds for the Swords. CUH shot 47% for the half, while the Sea Warriors shot 43%. Hawaii Pacific stayed closed behind hot three-point shooting, going 5-10 from the arc in the first twenty minutes of action.
The second half continued where the first left off, as Chaminade led 51-43 with 14:16 remaining in an intense local rivalry. A lob dunk by
Tyree Harrison and a layup by
Waly Coulibaly helped to extend the Chaminade lead to 66-53 with 8:43 left. HPU refused to go away and cut the lead to 68-65 with under five minutes left. A jumper by HPU's Max Livingston with 2:20 left gave HPU a 72-71 lead.
The ballgame was tied at 75-75 with 10 seconds left and CUH with the ball. The game headed to overtime as De'Andre Haskins lost the ball and HPU recovered as regulation time ran out.
HPU took momentum in overtime, and after an offensive rebound and putback, led by five points with under a minute to go.
Bennie Murray responded with a layup and cut the HPU lead to 83-80 with 29.2 left. The Sea Warriors held on down the stretch and won the contest, 88-82 in OT. Haskins led all scorers with 30 points and 9 rebounds, while
Bennie Murray added 17 points in the loss. CUH lost the rebounding battle, 43-38.
Hawaii Pacific was led by Marko Cukic with 21 points and 16 rebounds.
The Swords move to 17-9 on the year and 14-4 in the PacWest with the win. The Sea Warriors move to 10-15, 7-11 in the PacWest with the loss. Chaminade is back in action vs. the Sea Warriors in PacWest Conference Tournament action on March 7th. Chaminade will face HPU at 5:30 PM PT on March 7th at the Felix Event Center on the Azusa Pacific campus.
