Box Score SAN FRANCISCO – It probably wasn't the most aesthetically-pleasing game to watch from a scoring standpoint, but the Chaminade University men's basketball team did enough to trudge through a 69-55 Pacific West Conference victory Thursday afternoon at Kezar Pavillion.
Kevin Hu scored 11 of his team-high 15 points in the second half as the Silverswords won their seventh straight to improve to 12-6 overall and 9-1 in the PacWest, only a game behind idle California Baptist.
Kiran Shastri and
James Harper had 12 points each with Harper adding six rebounds.
Tyree Harrison pulled down 10 rebounds. The 55 points allowed is a season-low allowed by the 'Swords this season.
Lee Bailey, the reigning Hawai'i Tourism Authority PacWest Player of the Week who averaged 18.4 points per game coming into the contest, was held to 11, all coming in the second half. Bailey now has 996 career points and needs only four to reach the 1,000-point plateau.
Herman Pratt led the Urban Knights (4-13, 2-8 PacWest) with a game-high 20 points while Alexis Moore had 13 with Aaron Anderson hauling in 10 boards.
The Urban Knights controlled the tempo early on and was up, 16-11, with 11:35 left in the half. A Shastri 3-pointer triggered a 16-1 Chaminade run, capped by Harper's triple, making it 27-17 with 4:34 left in the half. Art U whittled the lead to 33-27 late in the stanza, but Shastri's fourth 3-pointer of the game with a minute left gave the Silverswords a 36-27 halftime advantage.
Both teams weren't particularly sharp in the first half with Chaminade shooting only 38.7 percent to Art U's 35.5. CUH held the rebounding advantage, 22-19.
The cold shooting continued to open the second half as both teams combined to miss the first seven shots. Hu 3-point play two minutes in finally broke the ice, giving CUH a 39-27 lead. Bailey's first bucket of the game, a 3-pointer with 14:22 left, gave the 'Swords a 44-30 edge, but Moore's 3-pointer three minutes later capped a 9-0 Knights' run.
But Bailey scored four points and Harper buried a trey to build the lead back to double-digits at 51-40 and the Urban Knights could get no closer than eight the rest of the way.
Chaminade shot 38.9 percent in the game, despite making only nine field goals in the second half. Conversely, the 'Swords' defense held Art U to only eight second half field goals and a 34.5 overall shooting percentage. They also out-rebounded the home team, 44-33, marking the sixth time in the last seven games that CUH has out-rebounded its opponent.
The Silverswords conclude their road trip on Saturday at Dominican University of California.
