A return to the NCAA West Regional was among the highlights of a successful 2018-19 campaign for the Chaminade University men's basketball team.
The Silverswords enjoyed an extremely successful season by finishing 23-8, posting their most wins since joining Division II in 1986, and advancing to their first regional since 2014. The season also saw them ranked in the NABC Top 25 Coaches Poll for a program-record eight weeks including seven straight in December to January.
"This was one of the most fun seasons in my coaching tenure," said head coach
Eric Bovaird who completed his eighth year with the program. "Our guys were a joy to coach and to be around."
An experienced group with seniors
Nicholas Anderson (Anaheim, Calif./Fullerton College/Canyon HS),
Grant Dressler (Las Vegas/Sacramento State/Palo Verde HS),
Erik Scheive (Marysville, Calif./Yuba College/Marysville HS) and
Masa Swain (San Jose, Calif./Bellarmine Prep) helped take the 'Swords to tremendous heights.
Playing an all-D-II schedule for the first time ever, the 'Swords raced out to a 10-0 start and peaked at No. 12 in the rankings, the highest ever in the coaches poll, and ninth in the D2SIDA Media Poll.
Along the way, there were some big wins including three in the Hoops in Hawai'i D2 Power Invitational over Western Washington, Dallas Baptist and UC San Diego, the latter two of which both advanced to their regional tournaments. Chaminade also took the top two PacWest squads,
Concordia and eventual national runners-up Point Loma, into overtime on their home floors.
With a 16-6 PacWest mark, the 'Swords earned the third seed in the conference champions and defeated Holy Names in the tournament opener which gave them a PacWest Tournament-record seventh win. Their 108 points and 59.6 percent shooting percentage also set tournament records for a single game.
"(Playing an all) Division II schedule this year, we were among the nation's elite for the majority of the year," Bovaird said.
Their exclusively played D-II schedule also helped them achieve a power rating which earned them a third trip to the West Regional during Bovaird's tenure. Although the season ended with a disappointing loss to Seattle Pacific in the opening round, there were many achievements made during the year.
Dressler concluded his short two-year Silversword career with one of the top seasons performances in the past decade. His 19.5 scoring average ranks is the second-highest since 2011 while his 94 3-pointers broke the school's single-season record.
Scheive ended his career by posting 16.4 scoring average with a 54.5 percent field goal percentage both of which were among the PacWest leaders.
Anderson finished as one of the conference assists leaders and tied atop the PacWest assist-to-turnover ratio. Swain, a former walk-on, was a valuable member off the bench and was looked upon as one of the team's top perimeter defenders.
Meanwhile,
Tyler Cartaino (Newbury Park, Calif./Newbury Park) had one of the most impressive turnarounds in program history. Despite sitting out the '17-18 season with an injury, the redshirt junior, whose career averages were 2.1 points and 1.8 rebounds, had a breakout '18-19. Cartaino posted a 17.7 scoring average, 6.6 rebounds per outing while his field goal percentage of 59 percent finished 20th nationally.
As a result of the individual successes, Dressler and Cartaino were both named to the All-PacWest First Team while Scheive was named to the second team. Dressler was also recognized as a D2CCA All-West Region second team honoree and was also chosen as one of just 10 seniors across the country to play in the prestigious Reece's Division II All-Star Game in Evansville, Ind.
Cartaino was also cited for his work in the classroom, earning Google Cloud Academic All-America Second Team status.
"Our four seniors were very instrumental to the success we had this year," Bovaird said. "I will truly miss this group of seniors but am anxious to see what's next for them because I know they will be successful in life."
