LAHAINA, Maui, Hawai'i – The Chaminade University men's basketball team came within seconds of collecting their ninth upset win Wednesday at the Maui Jim Maui Invitational.
Instead, it was heartbreak for the Silverswords in the final game at the Lahaina Civic Center.
Anthony Edwards, a projected top three pick in the next NBA Draft, hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 0.6 seconds left to lift Georgia to an 80-77 win over the 'Swords in the seventh-place game.
Just eight seconds earlier,
Andre Arissol (Northampton, England/Otero JC/Charnwood HS) splashed a game-tying 3-pointer to tie the game at 77.
Arissol hit for a career-high 24 points in defeat, hitting six 3-pointers which is also a career high.
Meanwhile
Tyler Cartaino (Newbury Park, Calif./Newbury Park) played in his final Maui Jim Maui Invitational game with 23 points, making 11 of 18 shots from the floor with four assists.
Kendall Small (Lakewood, Calif./Pacific/Mayfair HS) had a season-high 13 points with seven rebounds while setting a career-best with eight assists.
"It was a heck of a game," Chaminade head coach
Eric Bovaird said. "Really proud of our guys. They competed for 40 minutes. I know we're disappointed with the outcome, but to say you went toe-to-toe against an SEC team and a potential, I don't know, top-3, top-2, whatever draft pick in the NBA, is pretty special.
"The guys really stepped up on the third day, and we don't have the depth that a lot of teams have and they guys like (Arissol and Cartaino) played a lot of minutes over three days and I'm really proud that they battled right down to the very end."
Chaminade fell to 2-3 on the season, dropping below .500 for the first time in nearly three years.
Edwards led the Bulldogs (5-2) with 24 points on the afternoon.
The 'Swords buried five triples in the game's first 12 minutes, twice taking leads against the Bulldogs. Arissol hit three of them while Young accounted for the other two. UGA eventually as many as an eight-point lead at 36-28 with five minutes left in the half.
But the undaunted Silverswords outscored the Dogs, 7-0, capped by Arissol's triple to beat the halftime buzzer – his fourth of the game – to put them within a single point, 38-37, at the break. Arissol had 14 points at the half while Cartaino added eight.
Chaminade's 3-point shooting, going 7-for-11 in the first 20 minutes, helped keep them in it despite Georgia's 27-10 rebounding advantage and 26-12 edge in the paint.
A layup by Cartaino to open the half put Chaminade ahead, 39-38. The teams then traded leads over the next four possessions before an 8-0 CUH run, capped by Cartaino's alley-oop layup from Small put them up 49-47 with 15:50 left, forcing UGa to call a timeout.
A three-point play from Small expanded Chaminade's lead to 54-49 with 15:01 left. However Georgia came back, taking the lead, 57-56, on a dunk by Mike Peake with 12:34 on the clock, part of a 12-2 UGA run that gave the Dogs their largest lead of 69-60 with nine minutes left.
But the Silverswords were unfazed. A 10-2 run over the next three minutes, capped by an Arissol steal leading to Cartaino's layup and suddenly, they were within 71-70 with 4 minutes, 36 seconds left.
Later with Georgia up 77-72, Small hit a short jumper in the lane with less than a minute left, drawing CUH within three (77-74). Then after two empty Bulldog possessions, Small drove the lane from the left baseline then fired a bounce pass to Arissol who found nothing but net for the tying triple and sending the Chaminade contingent (and non-Georgia fans) into a frenzy.
But that set up Edwards' heroics, knocking down the game-winning, pull-up 3-pointer, ending the Silverswords' opportunity for an upset.
The 'Swords hit 50.8 percent from the floor (33-of-65) and held Georgia to 46.3 (31-of-67).
Eliet Donley (Yokosuka, Japan/Hayfield, Va., HS) and
Roman Young (Wichita, Kan./Mineral Area College/Sunrise Christian Academy) each had six points with Donley also getting five rebounds and three steals.
After their blistering 7-for-11 from 3-point range in the first half, the 'Swords were just 2-of-10 in the final 20 minutes. They also went to the free throw line four times (making two) while Georgia made 13 of its 19 tries. However, Chaminade also forced 19 Bulldogs turnovers, beating them in points off turnovers, 23-17.
"I have great facilitators around me like Tyler and Kendall, and Roman and Eliet, who do a good job of finding me, so it makes my job a lot easier, and it was just one of those moments," Arissol said about his tying triple and who is no stranger to clutch shots. Last year, he hit a game-winning 3-pointer at Hawai'i Hilo.
"We realize these are big-name schools and really good players and really big players," Cartaino said. "But they're people just like us and we play the same game we do. We have the same refs, we're in the same gym, so we're out there to compete. I mean, if you think we're going to lose before the game starts, you might as well not even play."
The Silverswords are next in action Wednesday when they open Pacific West Conference play against Azusa Pacific, one of the conference favorites, in their home opener at McCabe Gymnasium. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
