Box Score HONOLULU – The Chaminade University men's basketball team's bid for a major upset to start the New Year was not to be on Saturday night as they fell to No. 7 Dixie State in an 87-86 Pacific West Conference thriller at McCabe Gym.
The loss overshadowed Silversword guard
Lee Bailey's game-high 27 points and also spoiled the return of
Christophe Varidel to the floor. The senior sharpshooter hadn't seen the court since the team's Nov. 27 game against Minnesota at the EA Sports Maui Invitational – a span of 38 days – due to an injury. Varidel finished with 19 points, hitting five 3-pointers.
The Red Storm jumped out to a 6-0 lead to start, but Bailey hit a trio of 3-pointers to give the 'Swords a 9-6 advantage. The lead would see-saw before a
Rhys Murphy 3-ball, a
Kuany Kuany (18 points) layup and two Varidel free throws gave the Silverswords their largest lead of the game at 33-27 with seven minutes left in the half. But DSU outscored CUH 23-13 the rest of the way to grab a 50-46 advantage at the break.
Dixie State opened the second half on an 8-4 run to take a 58-50 lead. The Red Storm then extended their lead to double-digits, eventually building the lead to 73-61 with 10:21 left, their largest of the game.
But the 'Swords mounted a furious charge, as
Kiran Shastri and Varidel combined for three treys, along with two buckets by Kuany and Bailey, as CUH went on a 15-2 run. The charge was capped by a
Tyree Harrison tip-in with 5:16 remaining, giving Chaminade a 76-75 lead. However, Dixie State's Zach Robbins, the PacWest Preseason Player of the Year, converted a 3-point play, putting Dixie State back in front, 78-76.
A Kuany free throw shifted the lead back to CUH's favor at 79-78, but Thompson's 3-point play gave the visitors from St. George, Utah, an 81-79 advantage. Varidel then hit two free throws to tie it at 81 with two minutes left.
After a DSU free throw, Bailey's layup again knotted the game, but Thompson's tip-in with 1:02 left the Red Storm an 85-83 advantage. Robbins hit a layup with 13 seconds left, putting the Red Storm up, 87-83, but Varidel knocked down a pull-up triple with eight seconds left, narrowing the deficit to a single point. After Chaminade fouled, DSU's subsequent front-end of the 1-and-1 free throw was missed, but the 'Swords could not get the potential winning shot off.
Chaminade was 29-of-69 from the floor (42 percent) while Dixie State was 33-for-70 (47.1). The Red Storm also held slight advantages in rebounds (40-38), assists (15-13) and free throws (16-of-24 for DSU, 14-of-20 for CUH), although the 'Swords outshot them from long range, hitting 14 3-pointers to five for Dixie State.
CUH fell to 5-6 on the season and 2-1 in the PacWest, while DSU improved to 11-0 and 5-0.
The 'Swords return to the McCabe Gym court on Monday when they face Dominican at 7:30 p.m. The game will have live streaming audio on goswords.com.
