IRVINE, Calif. – Southern California has never been kind to the Chaminade University men's basketball team.
Although the Silverswords appeared to have started to reverse that trend with two wins in the region last year, their struggles in SoCal continued in this year's first game of the four-game swing.
Chaminade could not overcome a hot-shooting Concordia University Irvine squad in their 81-62 loss Saturday at the CU Event Center.
Austin Pope (Burbank, Calif./North Idaho College) and
Justin Bridges (Atlanta/Georgia Highlands College) each had 16 points in defeat.
The Eagles shot nearly 55 percent from the floor with most of the damage coming from JT Roach who poured in 40 points. He blistered the nets from long range with 12 of the team's 15 3-pointers, which broke the Pacific West Conference single-game record for triples by an individual.
The previous mark was 10, held by four players including a trio of Silverswords (Kiran Shastri at BYU-Hawai'i, Dec. 19, 2016; Christophe Varidel vs. Baylor, Nov. 25, 2013; and Joel Smith vs. Alaska Fairbanks, Dec. 5, 2008).
The loss dropped Chaminade to 14-8 overall and 9-6 in the PacWest. The Silverswords still own the fifth spot for next month's conference tournament with five games remaining. However, their lead for that spot dwindled to a half-game over Concordia (15-9, 9-7 PacWest) which swept the season series to give it the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Grant Dressler (Las Vegas/Sacramento State) added 10 for Chaminade.
Erik Scheive (Marysville, Calif./Yuba College) had a team-best eight rebounds while Pope and
Brett Reed (Houston/Cabrillo College) had six boards each. Bridges dished out four assists.
Chaminade was forced to play catch-up some six minutes in, founding themselves down 15-6. Concordia managed to lead by as much as 14 in the first half but a Bridges layup cut it to 34-27 at halftime.
The 'Swords continued to chip away at the lead early in the second half with two free throws from
Braden Koelliker (Kaysville, Utah/Colorado State) cutting CUI's lead to 47-40 at the 13:19 mark. But the Eagles' 16-5 run over the next five minutes, in essence, helped put the game away.
Shooting just 40.4 percent from the floor, CUH made a season-low four 3-pointers. Concordia shot over 65 percent in the second half en-route to a near-55 percent shooting game. The Eagles outrebounded the 'Swords 34-27 and had 16 assists to Chaminade's 10. Both squads committed 16 turnovers.
The Silverswords will be Azusa Pacific on Monday. It will be the first of two meetings between the two teams this season.
