HONOLULU – On the final night of eight consecutive games on O'ahu, the Chaminade University men's basketball team sandwiched two rapid-fire sequences around an early second-half lull to down Academy of Art, 90-75, Monday at McCabe Gymasium.
Tyler Cartaino (Newbury Park, Calif./Newbury Park), who earlier in the day was named the Pacific West Conference Player of the Week, scored 24 of his game-high 32 points in the first half.
Andre Arissol (Northampton, England/Otero JC/Charnwood HS) added 16 points as the Silverswords avenged a defeat to the Urban Knights in San Francisco last month to even the season series for the second straight year.
Eliet Donley (Yokosuka, Japan/Hayfield, Va., HS) added nine points as did
Kendall Small (Lakewood, Calif./Pacific/Mayfair HS) who also dished out nine assists.
Freshmen
Isaac Amaral-Artharee (Portland, Ore./Central Catholic) and
Kevin Kremer (Chico, Calif./Utah/Pleasant Valley HS) each had seven on the night with the latter pulling down a team-high nine rebounds.
Roman Young (Wichita, Kan./Mineral Area College/Sunrise Christian Academy) had five steals for Chaminade which amassed 19 steals, the most during
Eric Bovaird's tenure as head coach. Arissol, Cartaino, Small and Kremer each had three thefts as the 'Swords forced 23 turnovers.
Chaminade improved to 12-7 overall and 10-4 in the PacWest.
Academy of Art (3-14, 3-9 PacWest) was paced by Josh Hill and Stefan Milivojevic, who each had 19 points.
The 'Swords wasted no time, jumping out to a 7-0 less than two minutes in. After ART U rallied to take a 10-9 lead, its first and only of the game, Amaral-Artharee's 3-pointer began a massive run for the home team.
A barrage of fast-break scoring was highlighted by two monster flushes by Cartaino and one from
Bill Awet (Sydney, Australia/SIU Edwardsville/Victory Rock Prep, Fla., HS), all part of a 33-6 surge over an eight-minute span – including a run of 18-0 – which had Chaminade leading 42-16. In fact, at the 7:40 mark of the first half, Cartaino had personally outscored ART U, 20-16. The explosion helped the 'Swords build their lead by as many as 26 en-route to a 55-31 lead at halftime.
But it was the Urban Knights who came out inspired out of the break. Over the first six minutes, ART U's 15-0 run cut Chaminade's lead to single digits (55-46) on Milivojevic's layup, bringing the McCabe Gym faithful uneasy.
But Kremer assisted on Arissol's triple on the 'Swords' next possession then made a steal which led to a driving layup from Amaral-Artharee to give the momentum back to Chaminade. Later, another Amaral-Artharee bucket followed by a three-point play from Donley helped push the lead back to 20 and ART U was never able to mount another threat thereafter.
Chaminade finished with a 52.1 field goal percentage and held the Urban Knights to 46 percent. Although they were out-rebounded 40-31, the 'Swords had just two turnovers in the final nine minutes to help keep ART U at bay.
The Silverswords play outside of O'ahu for the first time in the calendar year when they open a six-game road trip starting Super Bowl Sunday at Hawai'i Hilo on the Big Island. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
