Box Score HONOLULU – Fans certainly have gotten their monies worth watching the Chaminade University and BYU-Hawai'i men's basketball teams play each other this season.
For the second time this year, 40 minutes weren't enough to settle things as the Silverswords and Seasiders went into overtime. In January, it was
Lee Bailey playing hero, hitting a 3-pointer with 1.5 seconds left, giving Chaminade a double-overtime win. On Thursday, the heroics would be done by BYUH's Robbie Mitchell.
The 5-foot-9 guard drove the length of the floor and hit a layup with four seconds left, giving the Seasiders a heart-stopping 99-98 win in front of a boisterous 267 fans at McCabe Gym.
Freshman
Kuany Kuany poured in a season-high 33 points and pulled down 15 rebounds for Chaminade (15-12 overall, 12-7 Pacific West Conference), his eighth double-double this season.
Lee Bailey had 20 points with five rebounds and four assists while
Kevin Hu tied his season-high with 19 points, along with seven boards. Kiran Shatri, the reigning Hawai'i Tourism Authority PacWest Freshman of the Week, had 16.
Cory Lange had 25 points to lead BYUH (15-11, 13-7) while Mitchell had 20.
Mitchell's game-winner was part of a frenzied finish to the game. With 27 seconds left, Kuany hit two free throws giving Chaminade a 96-95 lead. But the Seasiders' Pablo Coro was fouled with 15 seconds remaining and his two free throws gave the lead back to the visitors, 97-96. With Chaminade out of timeouts, Kuany took the inbounds pass, raced down the left side of the lane, hitting a layup to give the Silverswords a 98-97 advantage with eight seconds left. Then on the ensuing possession with the Seasiders also out of timeouts, Mitchell received the inbounds pass, raced down the floor and beat two defenders to the basket for the game-winner.
Chaminade still had a chance, but Kuany's desperation cross-court heave sailed over the head of Bailey where BYUH's Tyler Tuliau tracked it down, ending the game.
The Silverswords actually had some heroics of their own at the end of regulation. Down by 83-80 with nine seconds left,
Tyree Harrison found Bailey in the deep right corner, where the junior point guard splashed in the equalizer, forcing overtime.
It might very well be one of the most exciting games in the conference this season, which saw 16 ties and 20 lead changes. The largest lead of the game was at eight by BYUH with 15:28 left in the first half.
The game saw a combined 74 free throws attempted. Chaminade took 43, making 33, just under 77 percent, but BYUH hit 26-of-31 for a near 84 percent rate. And despite out-rebounding the Seasiders, 45-29, the Silverswords committed 22 turnovers, which BYUH converted into 26 points.
The game's outcome flip-flopped the positioning of the Seasiders and 'Swords for next week's PacWest Tournament in San Diego with BYUH taking over the No.4 spot while Chaminade is fifth. Due to the conference tiebreaker when teams have split their head-to-head series, both are locked into their current seeds (the Seasiders are 1-0 against No. 2 Dominican while the 'Swords are 1-1 against the Penguins). BYUH and CUH will meet for a third time in next Thursday's first round.
The Silverswords will end the regular season on Saturday when they face Fresno Pacific. Seniors
Tyree Harrison and
Rhys Murphy will be honored following the game, which will have live streaming audio on goswords.com.
