HONOLULU – The Chaminade University men's basketball team tied a season-high by dropping 18 3-pointers as they blitzed past BYU-Hawai'i, 115-86, Saturday at McCabe Gym.
Rohndell Goodwin and
Dantley Walker supplied most of the arsenal from long range with Goodwin knocking down a career-high 6-of-9 while Walker dropped in 5-of-7. Goodwin hit for 18 points while Walker set a career-high with 16.
And while Goodwin and Walker were bombing away,
Kuany Kuany was working inside the line, hitting 10 of his 11 shots for a game-high 24 points. Kuany, the Pacific West Conference's field goal percentage leader at 58.1 percent coming into the game, also dished out eight assists and pulled down six rebounds.
Sam Daly contributed with 22 points.
The win improved the Silverswords to 11-14 overall and 9-9 in the PacWest, moving them into a three-way tie with Fresno Pacific and Dominican for the sixth and final spot in the PacWest Tournament with only two games remaining. The tournament will be held in two weeks in Irvine, California.
Scott Friel led the Seasiders (13-10, 10-8 PacWest) with 19 points.
BYUH held a brief 5-4 lead early in the contest and held it for a total of 14 seconds before Goodwin buried the first of his 3s to put Chaminade ahead, 7-5. After Corey Lange tied it at 7 with a bucket, Kuany's layup followed by
Kiran Shastri's first of two triples of the night sent the 'Swords on a 17-1 surge over the next six minutes.
David Ware and
Oscar Pedroso each hit a trey during the run.
Another Shastri 3-pointer and one from Kuany gave Chaminade a 32-11 lead with nine minutes left in the half. But the island rivals from the North Shore weren't about to go away quietly as they sliced the deficit down to 10 with 3:30 remaining. Goodwin answered with another triple and after free throws from Kuany and Daly,
James Harper got involved in the shooting gallery by drilling one a 3-ball of his own and suddenly, the lead was back to 17 with Chaminade owning a 56-39 cushion at the break.
Goodwin hit two more triples to begin the half, putting the 'Swords up 64-39. Again, the Seasiders made a run, trimming Chaminade's lead down to 13 but layups from Kuany and Ware, followed by Goodwin's fifth 3-pointer of the game and two more from Walker capped a 10-0 run, putting the Silverswords back up 84-61, ending all notions of a Seasider comeback.
When the smoke cleared, the 'Swords made 57 percent of their shots and were 54.5 percent from long range (18-of-33). Meanwhile BYUH, which entered the game as one of the top 3-point percentage teams in the conference at near 40 percent, was made only three of its 20 tries for 15 percent. The 'Swords also dished out 25 assists and committed only nine giveaways, tied for their lowest of the season.
The win clinched a season sweep of the Seasiders and also gave Chaminade a point in the PacWest Hawai'i Challenge.
Prior to tipoff of the game, Shastri was honored for becoming the latest member of the Chaminade 1,000-point club by being presented a game ball from head coach
Eric Bovaird.
Kiran Shastri was honored before the game for achieving his 1,000th career point.As the season enters its final week of the regular season, the Silverswords will again be tested in the battle for a spot in the conference tournament. They face Azusa Pacific, which hold the top seed in the tournament, Thursday at McCabe Gym. Live streaming audio of the critical game will be on GoSwords.com.
