HONOLULU – Throw the records out when the Chaminade University and Hawai'i Pacific University men's basketball teams get together.
The Silverswords, ranked 18th in NABC Coaches Poll, took everything the Sharks gave them before out-lasting them, 92-85, Monday at the Neal Blaisdell Center.
Grant Dressler (Las Vegas/Sacramento State/Palo Verde HS) buried five 3-pointers on-route to a game-high 25 points with five rebounds and four assists. For the second straight contest,
Tyler Cartaino (Newbury Park, Calif./Newbury Park) had 24 while making 8-of-12 field goal and all six free throw tries. In his last eight games, the junior forward is making 62-of-89 field goal attempts for a blistering 69.7 percent.
Erik Scheive (Marysville, Calif./Yuba College/Marysville HS) contributed with 16 points and nine boards while
Andre Arissol (Northampton, England/Otero JC/Charnwood HS) had 11, his first double-digit scoring game since Feb. 11 which was the first meeting against HPU.
Nicholas Anderson (Anaheim, Calif./Fullerton College/Canyon HS) dished out five assists for the 'Swords who improved to 16-4 overall and 10-4 in the Pacific West Conference, the program's best 20-game start since the 1983-84 squad began that year also 16-4. The 'Swords also maintained their hold of third place in the conference.
Jonathan Janssen had 22 points for the Sharks who fell to 5-15 and 2-13 in PacWest.
Dressler knocked down three of his triples during an 17-8 run early in the first half to put Chaminade up 24-14 less than eight minutes in. Cartaino had a three-point play during the run while Arissol knocked down a 3 to end the run.
But as the nature of the rivalry, the Sharks bit back and eventually took their first lead since early in the game and led 46-44 at halftime.
HPU's lead grew to six (51-45) a minute-and-a-half after both teams emerged from the locker room before buckets from Cartaino, Schieve and Dressler put the 'Swords ahead 54-53 with 16:32 left.
From there the game went into its dramatic moments. During the next five minutes, there were four ties and seven lead changes with key baskets from Chaminade reserves
Masa Swain (San Jose, Calif./Bellermine) and
Jake Hutchings (Las Vegas/Howard College/Centennial HS).
Trailing 67-65 with 11:38 left, Cartaino drove for a layup and was fouled. His subsequent free throw to complete the and-one put the 'Swords ahead to stay. And each time the Sharks got a score, Chaminade had an answer on the other end. After HPU's Darnell Bettis sank a triple to cut their deficit to 85-83, Anderson provided Chaminade's biggest answer by knocking down a straight-away 3 with two minutes left to put the visitors back up by five (88-83).
Scheive and Dressler each went 2-for-2 from the foul line in the game's final minute to seal the win.
Despite being out-shot percentage-wise (55.1 to 49.2) Chaminade sank 10 3-pointers to HPU's five. The 'Swords also made the most of their chances from the free throw line, making 18 of 19 tries. Conversely, the Sharks were just 4 of 14 from the charity stripe. Chaminade also had the advantage on the glass, 38-34, although HPU had 21 assists to CUH's 19.
The win also secured first-place points for the 'Swords in the men's basketball portion of the PacWest Hawai`i Challenge. Chaminade also swept the season series from HPU, representing its first season-sweep over the Sharks since the 2013-14 season.
The Silverswords return to McCabe Gymnasium for the final two games of their current O'ahu home stand on Friday against Dominican University of California.
