Box Score HONOLULU – In what may be its grittiest win of the season, the Chaminade men's basketball team rallied from a 12-point first half deficit, then held off a late rally to down Dominican University of California, 75-65, in a Pacific West Conference game Monday at McCabe Gym.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak as the Silverswords evened their record to 6-6 overall and 3-1 in the PacWest. The Penguins fell to 11-4 and 5-2.
Kuany Kuany, who earlier in the day was named the PacWest Freshman of the Week for the second consecutive week, tallied his fourth double-double of the season with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Tyree Harrison also notched a double-double with 12 points and 10 boards, the first of his career.
The Silverswords jumped out to a quick 9-5 lead to start, but Dominique Taplin's 3-pointer gave the Penguins their first lead of the game at 12-11 with 13:18 left in the first half, part of a 22-10 run. DUC's lead eventually grew to 12 at 37-25 with 2:01 left, but 'Swords chipped away as Kuany hit three free throws, along with
Kevin Hu's 3-pointer as the 'Swords found themselves down 39-31 at the half.
Dominican shot a whopping 55.6 percent from the floor, converting 15 of its 27 field goals while Chaminade was only 9-for-24 (37.5 percent). The Penguins also held the edge in rebounding (15-11) and hit all six of their free throws with the 'Swords making 9-of-13.
Chaminade rallied in the early stages of the second half. After finding itself trailing 45-36, the 'Swords went on a 15-4 run as
Kiran Shastri buried two treys and another from
Lee Bailey. Kuany hit two foul shots to tie it at 49 with 13:13 left then gave them a 51-49 lead on a layup with 12:05 remaining.
Dominican replied with a pair of Matt Hayes treys as DUC retook the lead at 55-52 with 9:22 left, helping the Penguins extend their lead to 59-53.
But the 'Swords would make their run as Harrison scored four points, Hu's layup and Kuany's two free throws would push the lead back to Chaminade at 61-59 with 5:26 left. The run swelled as Kuany's 3-point play and Shastri's 3-pointer from the right wing pushed the advantage to 69-59, all part of a 16-0 run over a four-minute span.
The Penguins made one final push, closing to within six with 2:41 left, but the Silverswords hit eight free throws down the stretch to pull away.
The 'Swords shot significantly better in the second half, making 55.6 percent of their shots (10-of-18) to shoot 45.2 percent in the game. Their defense also came up big, holding the Penguins to only 9-of-30 shooting (30.0 percent) in the second half for a 42.1 percentage overall. Chaminade also out-rebounded Dominican, 19-8, in the second half to win the rebounding totals, 30-23. The 'Swords were also 29-of-41 from the foul line while the Penguins were 11-of-12.
Chaminade conclude the home stand on Wednesday when they face Academy of Art at McCabe Gym. Tipoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. with live streaming audio available on goswords.com.
