SAN FRANCISCO – The Chaminade University men's basketball team was in dire need of a win after agonizing losses against Dixie State and Hawai'i Pacific on O'ahu. They got just that with a 100-87 win over Academy of Art Saturday at Kezar Pavillion.
Kiran Shastri inched closer to 1,000 career points with a team-high 17 points while
Kuany Kuany notched his Pacific West Conference-leading 10
th double-double of the season with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Shastri buried four 3-pointers to give him 965 points.
Sam Daly added 16 points, hitting 7 of his 10 shots while adding five assists.
Rohndell Goodwin and
Kevin Hu each had 15 points with Hu pulling down eight boards while Goodwin had six.
Chaminade improved to 8-11 overall and 6-6 in the PacWest.
ART U (4-15, 2-11) was led by Jase Harrison who poured in a game-high 30 points and pulled down 11 rebounds.
The Urban Knights' only lead of the game came 39 seconds into the game on Harrison's layup which put them up 2-1. Kuany hit a layup 27 seconds later to give the 'Swords the lead for good followed by fast break layups by Kuany and Shastri. Chaminade continued to pound the paint with more layups from Daly and
Oscar Pedroso as its lead expanded to 14-3 at the 15-minute mark of the first half.
ART U pulled to within six but triples from
Dantley Walker and Shastri pushed the lead to 12 but the Urban Knights got a 9-0 run to close to within 38-34 with 1:26 left in the half. A three-point play by Kuany helped give Chaminade a 43-37 halftime lead.
The Silverswords scored the first seven points of the second half, all from Pedroso and Kuany to go up by 15. After the Urban Knights brought the deficit back to single digits, the 'Swords' defense stepped up, holding them to without a field goal for a 3 1/2 minute span while they went on a key 13-2 run, capped by Walker's second triple of the game to put the Silverswords up 65-45 midway through the second half.
However, big leads weren't enough to seal wins for Chaminade in its previous two games and ART U climbed back to within 12 with 7:43 remaining. This time the 'Swords had an answer as Daly hit three short jumpers and Shastri buried two more treys down the stretch to ensure another double-digit lead would not go down in vain at the end.
The 'Swords, who were held to a meager 38 percent shooting night at HPU on Tuesday, hit 56.1 percent of their shots (31-of-55), tied for their third-highest of the season. They were also able to get to the free throw line, hitting 29-of-37 attempts, both season-highs. Despite being slightly out-rebounded (36-34), they had more 3s (9-5), assists (14-11), steals (9-5) and blocked shots (4-1).
The Silverswords face Holy Names Monday in Oakland.
