HONOLULU –
Lilia Maio's career night was not enough to carry the Chaminade University women's basketball team to victory on Thursday.
The sophomore forward from Nanakuli and Kamehameha-Kapalama broke an eight-year old program record for rebounds in a game with 18 and also scored a career-high 23 points. But despite the effort, the Silverswords could not hold on to a second-half double-digit lead in their 86-80 overtime loss to Dominican at McCabe Gym.
The 'Swords fell to 7-16 overall and 7-12 in the Pacific West Conference while the Penguins improved to 13-12 and 10-9 in the PacWest.
Maio's total surpassed the 17 boards pulled down by Brittnee Fonnesbeck at Hawai'i-Hilo on March 5, 2007, the first year of women's basketball at Chaminade. She made 11-of-21 shots from the floor, all career-bests.
Katie Buskey contributed with 22 points and seven rebounds for the 'Swords, hitting 5-for-9 from 3-point land, tied for the second-most in school history.
Sabrina Angle hit all three of her triples to finish with nine points while
Shana Kawakami had eight points and three steals.
Reigning PacWest Defender of the Week
Kristle Henry got three steals, giving her 55 thefts this season, just one away from the Chaminade single-season record. The Kaua'i High School alumna also had seven points, seven boards and five assists.
Glacen Florita finished with six assists on the night.
Dominican's Allyssa Weathered poured in a game-high 32 points with 11 rebounds while center Sarah Nelson, NCAA Division II's shot-block leader at 5.36 blocks per game coming into the week, had three blocks along with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
The 'Swords were able to consistently work their motion offense away from the 6-4 Nelson in the first half, forcing her to play outside the perimeter and build a double-digit lead late in the first half. Maio scored five points during an 11-2 run to finish the second half as Chaminade built a 49-36 halftime lead. The 'Swords shot 54.5 percent of their shots (18-of-33) in the first 20 minutes and also had the rebounding edge, 20-15.
Kawakami's layup to start the second half gave Chaminade its largest lead at 51-36. But midway though, Weatherd put the team on her shoulders, scoring eight straight during a key 18-4 run, capped off by Jessy Marshall's 3 to give the Penguins a 61-59 lead, their first since it was 17-16 in the first half.
Dominican's lead grew to 67-61 with six minutes left, but Buskey hit a pair of triples and her old-fashion 3-point play helped the 'Swords to go on a 13-0 run to give them a seven-point lead with three minutes left to play. The Penguins were undaunted, eventually retaking a 76-74 lead, but
Carissa McBride calmly hit two clutch foul shots to tie the game at 76 with 20 seconds left to play. After DUC missed their ensuing shot, the 'Swords got the ball into the hands of Florita, but her top-of-the-key 3-pointer to win it spun out of the rim to send the game into overtime.
The OT session belonged to Dominican's Melissa Boscarino who scored seven of the team's 10 points in the extra session to help the Penguins to pull away.
After a first half of success from the field, the 'Swords couldn't maintain their hot shooting in the final 25 minutes, going only 12-of-36 for 33.3 percent, finishing the game at 43.5 percent. They grabbed 44 rebounds and had 16 assists to Dominican's 32 rebounds and 10 dimes. Chaminade also hit 10 3-pointers. But the Penguins feasted at the free throw line, hitting 27-of-45 attempts while the 'Swords went to the line only 13 times, making 10.
Meanwhile, Florita hit one 3-ball in the game, tying her with Samantha Saito with 93 career 3-pointers for second all-time. Florita needs two more to pass Marian Murphy (94 career 3s) to become the program's all-time career 3-point leader.
The 'Swords will end the season Saturday at McCabe Gym against Academy of Art at 5 p.m. Live streaming audio will be available on GoSwords.com. Seniors Buskey, Florita and
Hanna Curtius will be honored following the game.
