HONOLULU – Not even a defeat on Senior Night could damper the spirits of the Chaminade University women's basketball team.
Despite dropping a 69-59 decision Saturday to visiting Academy of Art, the team and fans celebrated the careers of four playing their final collegiate games in a year that they went 7-17 overall and 7-13 in the Pacific West Conference, which made them the winningest team in program history.
Seniors
Katie Buskey,
Hanna Curtius and
Glacen Florita were honored as was junior
Sabrina Angle, who will concentrate on finishing her degree next year.
Buskey went out in style with her first double-double as a Silversword, scoring 14 points with a career-high 11 rebounds.
Florita finished with 11 points, five assists, five steals and four rebounds. She also hit three 3-pointers to pass Marian Murphy to become the program's all-time career-leader in 3-pointers with 96.
Curtius logged two minutes of action while Angle played 11 minutes, making one steal.
Lilia Maio led the 'Swords with 15 points along with seven boards.
ART U led for most of the first half, but was unable to pull away. Florita's trey gave the 'Swords a 28-27 lead with 2:36 left in the half, but the Urban Knights used an 8-0 run to grab the lead for good.
Kennedi Akana, who made her return after missing the previous two games due to injury, hit a bucket to put the Silverswords down 37-32 at halftime.
The 'Swords refused to let ART U pull away in the second half.
Kristle Henry hit two free throws with less than six minutes left in the game to pull them to within 55-51, but a 10-0 run by the Urban Knights spoiled any notions of a Chaminade upset on Senior Night.
Jasmin Guinn had 21 points and 12 rebounds for the Urban Knights, who secured the fifth-seed in next week's PacWest Tournament in Irvine, Calif.
Florita finished second in several career categories, including points (620), assists (160), games played (88), starts (72) and minutes played (2,525). Her 3-point field goal percentage of 38.3 is the best in school history.
"It's definitely a bittersweet feeling," Florita said. "I'm not going to miss the 6 a.m. practices, but I'm definitely going to miss my teammates and all the experiences I've had with them in this program."
It's been a really fun ride," Angle said. "The past few years have been really enjoyable and I've learned a lot."
"I'm going to miss my teammates the most,"Curtius said. "They were worth every second and every tiring morning. Overall these past four years, I wouldn't change a thing."
"I'm going to miss my teammates," Buskey said. "They were the ones who made me want to get up at 5 in the morning. It would be the only way I would get up."
Curtius ranks third all-time in career blocks (29) and games played (73). Buskey, in her only season at Chaminade, averaged 11.8 points per game, the sixth-best single-season scoring average in program history. And Angle departs with 90 career 3-pointers, the fourth-most in team history.
The 'Swords, who were picked to finish last in the preseason coaches poll before the season began, ended in a tie for ninth-place, the first time they've finished out of the PacWest cellar since 2006-07, the first year of women's basketball at Chaminade.
