HONOLULU – The Chaminade University men's basketball team picked up right where they left off in 2016, starting the new year by rallying past Concordia University Irvine, 88-83, Tuesday at McCabe Gym.
The Silverswords overcame a 16-point first half deficit to win their fifth straight, their longest winning streak in two years. They also won their seventh straight game at home which dates back to the final game of the 2015-16 season.
Kiran Shastri continued to sizzle, hitting eight of his 11 field goal tries, including 4-of-6 3-pointers for a game-high 25 points. Rondell Goodwin finished with 19 points, followed by
Kuany Kuany (14) and
Sam Daly (11).
Chaminade improved to 9-5 on the season and 5-2 in the Pacific West Conference.
The Eagles fell to 7-6 and 3-2 and were led with 16 points from Brian Chambers.
In his last four games, Shastri has averaged 26.8 points per contest with a field goal percentage of over 61 percent. The senior from Orinda, California, has also hit a staggering 63.6 percent (21-of-33) from 3-point range in his last three outings.
Goodwin, who came into Tuesday's game second in the nation in field goals made with 109, made eight of his 13 shots while also pulling down six rebounds. Kuany grabbed a team-high seven boards, tying him with Marko Kolaric (2004-08) for fourth in the school's all-time rebounding list with 768. He also has 1,405 career points, tying him with former Silversword great Tim Dunham (1981-83) for seventh in the all-time scoring list.
Kuany, Goodwin and Shastri also each had four assists.
Austin Pope contributed with eight points and six boards.
CUI had the hot hand early as it jumped out to a 20-6 lead six minutes into the game. The lead grew to 28-12 with 9:23 left, forcing the home team to expend two time outs.
But Chaminade clawed its way back with Kuany's triple which cut the deficit to single digits. The 'Swords continued to battle back as Daly's dunk with 37 seconds left in the half got the home team buzzing. Pope then threw one down with just seconds left as Chaminade found itself down by only seven at the break.
The run continued in the second half as Chaminade scored 13 of the game's next 20 points to draw to within one after Shastri's driving layup. The 'Swords then took their first lead of the game at 53-51 on the next possession with
Dantley Walker's triple.
For the next three minutes, the contest went back-and-forth with three ties and five lead changes, the final coming with 11:49 left when
Justin Bridges buried his second 3-pointer of the game, putting the 'Swords ahead 61-59.
CUI managed to force a 66-all tie but Shastri's layup put Chaminade up for good. The Eagles got to within three with a minute left but Shastri applied the dagger, knocking down another trey to hold them off in the final seconds.
After shooting only 44 percent in the first half, the 'Swords shot 59 percent in the second while holding Concordia to a 42 percent second-half shooting performance. And despite being out-rebounded 45-30, Chaminade limited mistakes by committing only 12 turnovers against an Eagles squad who led the conference in steals. CUI which also led the PacWest in turnover margin (plus-6.08) was minus-3 at game's end.
The Silverswords now have their biggest conference game on the season on Thursday when they face California Baptist in a key PacWest showdown. The Lancers moved up one spot to No. 7 in the latest NABC Top 25 Coaches Poll. CBU ended Hawai'i Pacific's undefeated season earlier Tuesday night with an 80-70 win. Thursday's tip-off at McCabe Gym will be at 7:30 p.m. with live streaming audio coverage on GoSwords.com.
