AZUSA, Calif. – With the exception of successful Pacific West Conference Tournament runs in 2013 and '14, Southern California has not been kind to Chaminade University men's basketball over the years. That ended Monday as the Silverswords got an 83-71 win over Azusa Pacific at the Felix Event Center.
Kiran Shastri hit for a team-high 18 points, making six 3-pointers to improve the Silverswords to 14-8 overall and 10-5 in the Pacific West Conference, putting them into a fourth-place tie with Concordia University Irvine.
The win snapped a 10-game road losing streak in SoCal for the 'Swords, whose last victory in the area was at UC San Diego on Dec. 19, 2002. Chaminade was 0-8 in PacWest SoCal road games during the span while the win also snapped a four-game skid to Azusa Pacific.
Rohndell Goodwin, coming off the bench for the first time this season, scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half while
Kuany Kuany and
Austin Pope each tallied double-doubles.
Pope, who had his five-game double-double streak snapped Saturday at Concordia, had 14 points and 11 rebounds while Kuany also snared 11 boards along with 15 points.
Dantley Walker added nine by hitting three triples.
Corey Langerveld led APU (10-13, 5-8 PacWest) with 21 points.
Both teams grinded it out in the first half with five ties and 10 lead changes. The half's largest lead was seven (31-24) by the Cougars with five minutes left but Kuany scored seven straight points to help the 'Swords go on a half-ending 11-4 run to knot the game at 35 at the break.
After the teams traded scores to start the second half, Shastri was money from downtown in consecutive possessions to give Chaminade a 43-39 lead while Pope's layup and two free throws along with a triple from Goodwin put them up 50-41.
Another 3-pointer by Shastri, his third of the half, gave the 'Swords their first double-digit lead (60-50) at the midway point. APU would whittle the lead down into single digits but Walker buried back-to-back 3s to put the visitors up by 15. The Cougars again brought their deficit to nine but Goodwin's triple, Pope's layup and a 3 from Kuany on three straight trips on the floor would seal the contest.
Despite shooting just under 41 percent from the floor, Chaminade made 16 of its 31 3-point tries and had 18 assists to 10 turnovers while their defense limited APU to 37.5 percent shooting on the night, including just 9-of-28 from long range. They also forced 15 turnovers, turning them into 21 points.
Meanwhile, Kuany moved past Roy Villanova into fifth in the all-time scoring list with 1,499 points and is 32 away from tying George Gilmore (1,531) for fourth. Shastri, in the meantime, also moved up in the scoring list with 1,432 career points, passing former teammate Lee Bailey for seventh all-time.
The Silverswords travel down the coast to San Diego and face Point Loma on Thursday.
