HONOLULU – After scuffling on the court for the past week, the Chaminade University men's basketball team got a much-needed win which happened to come against their biggest rival.
Grant Dressler (Las Vegas/Sacramento State) scored 18 points with four 3-pointers – both career-highs – as the Silverswords held off Hawai'i Pacific University in a 73-65 win Saturday at the Blaisdell Center.
Reigning Pacific West Conference Player of the Week
Austin Pope (Burbank, Calif./North Idaho College) added another solid all-around effort with 13 points, nine rebounds, eight assists, two steals and two blocks.
Erik Scheive (Marysville, Calif./Yuba College) and
Justin Bridges (Atlanta/Georgia Highlands) also had 13 points while
Brett Reed (Houston/Cabrillo College) had nine rebounds.
The win snapped not only a two-game losing streak for the Silverswords but also ended a six-game slide to HPU dating back to February 2015. It also gave Head Coach
Eric Bovaird victory No. 102, moving him past
Matt Mahar for second all-time in the Chaminade career wins list. He trails only
Merv Lopes who has 237 career wins.
Chaminade improved to 13-6 overall and 8-4 in the PacWest, maintaining its fifth-place hold in the PacWest standings.
The Sharks (10-9, 5-6 PacWest) were led by Niksha Federico's 19 points.
The 'Swords fell behind early, trailing 10-4 but Pope,
Braden Koelliker (Kaysville, Utah/Colorado State) and Scheive each had buckets while Dressler made two free throws for a 10-0 run to give them the lead. Then Scheive had seven points during a 12-2 run to give them their largest lead of the half at 37-25 and led 37-28 at intermission.
The 'Swords came out firing in the second half. Bridges and Pope each had four points and a layup from
Nate Pollard (Bountiful, Utah/Rice University) capped a 15-2 run over a six-minute span to give them their largest lead at 52-34.
But the defending PacWest champions did not go away quietly. Federico scored eight straight including back-to-back triples then Spencer Vering hit another trey and suddenly, Chaminade's lead was down to 52-47.
But Dressler answered on the next possession with a 3 from the left angle then buried another two possessions later. After two HPU free throws narrowed the deficit to seven,
Dantley Walker (Panaca, Nev./UNLV), who had been struggling with his shot, stepped up and knocked down a 3-pointer from the right wing, not only ending a string of 12 straight misses from long range dating back to Jan. 18, but put Chaminade up 61-51 with seven minutes left.
HPU got to within six with two minutes remaining but Dressler's breakaway dunk and the 'Swords' 4-for-4 effort from the charity stripe in the final 42 seconds iced the game.
Chaminade shot 50 percent while holding HPU to 39. They also owned the glass with 42 rebounds to the Sharks' 27.
The 'Swords also did the job from the line. After going a paltry 11-for-27 in their previous two games combined, they hit all nine of their free throw tries. HPU was just 10-of-19.
The Silverswords will return to McCabe Gym for a two-game home stand starting Thursday when they host Dixie State. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. with live streaming audio on GoSwords.com.
