HONOLULU – Home court continued to be hold in contests between the Chaminade University and Dominican University of California's men's basketball teams.
Monday's match-up was no different.
For the fifth consecutive game, the home team won on its home floor with Chaminade defeating Dominican, 88-83, in a hotly-contested battle which has become the norm between the two programs.
Kuany Kuany had a season-high 24 points, hitting 9 of 12 shots from the floor for the Silverswords, who improved to 7-9 on the year and 5-4 in the Pacific West Conference. He also had six rebounds, giving him 603 career boards, moving him past Francis Fletcher (600) into seventh-place in the program's all-time list.
Rohndell Goodwin, who earlier in the day was named the PacWest Defender of the Week, added 18 points and six boards.
Kiran Shastri and
Sam Daly contributed with 11 points while
Kevin Hu had 10. Hu had a team-high eight rebounds while Daly, who is second in the conference in assists at five per contest, dropped seven dimes, pulled down five rebounds and had three steals.
The Penguins (9-7, 5-4 PacWest) were led by Christopher Schwartz-Edmisten's 18 points.
Dominican owned the lead through the game's first six minutes before Goodwin's layup gave Chaminade its first lead of the game at 21-20. After Schartz-Edmisten's short jumper in the lane put DUC ahead, Shastri's short baseline jumper tipped it back to the Silverswords at 23-22 on the next possession. A
Dantley Walker triple from the left corner gave CUH its largest lead at that point at 34-27.
The Penguins would cut the deficit to two but Daly's free throw and layup would help Chaminade score nine of the game's final 13 points of the first half, giving the 'Swords a 47-40 halftime lead.
Daly opened the second half with a bucket and
James Harper's free throw gave Chaminade first double-digit lead at 50-40. But Dominican responded, twice cutting the deficit to a single point over the next two minutes.
Clinging to a 67-64 advantage with 8:32 left, the 'Swords then made their move.
Oscar Pedroso drilled a triple then Goodwin hit back-to-back buckets including a 3-pointer and Chaminade's lead was back to double-digits at 75-64. The Penguins narrowed the margin to eight but Hu hit a 3-pointer and then got an old-school three-point play on the next possession to give the Silverswords a 13-point lead, their largest of the game with 1:35 left.
The Penguins hit a pair of 3s towards the end of the game to make the game seem closer than the score indicated.
Chaminade made 32 of its 56 shot attempts for 57.1 percent, its second-highest percentage of the season, while holding Dominican to a 44.8 percent clip. The 'Swords also out-rebounded the Penguins, 38-31, although DUC made 13 triples to CUH's nine.
The Silverswords finish their home stand Saturday when they host Dixie State at McCabe Gym. Tip is set for 7:30 p.m. with live streaming audio coverage on GoSwords.com.
