HONOLULU – Fans at McCabe Gymnasium are sure getting their monies worth at Chaminade University men's basketball games in 2020.
Just 48 hours removed from their four-overtime marathon defeat against Biola, the Silverswords again went down to the wire Monday, but this time, they escaped with a 74-73 win over Fresno Pacific at McCabe Gymnasium.
The 'Swords survived two potential game-winning shots from the Sunbirds inside five seconds left to avoid a second consecutive home loss.
Kendall Small (Lakewood, Calif./Pacific/Mayfair HS) surpassed his career high for a second straight game, pouring in a game-high 26 points with seven rebounds for the Silverswords who improved to 7-5 overall and 5-2 in the Pacific West Conference.
Tyler Cartaino (Newbury Park, Calif./Newbury Park) rebounded from Monday's game where he missed 15 shots to contribute with 20 points, making 8 of 13 from the field.
Eliet Donley (Yokosuka, Japan/Hayfield, Va., HS) chipped in with eight while
Andre Arissol (Northampton, England/Otero JC/Charnwood HS) added seven.
Fresno Pacific was paced by Aamonde Coleman's 22 points and fell to 4-10 overall and 2-6 in the PacWest.
Chaminade overcame 23 turnovers – the most against a Division II squad this season – by making nearly 57 percent (29-of-51) from the field. They also held FPU to 45.7 percent field goal shooting (32-of-70) including just 6-of-20 from 3-point distance.
A 3-pointer at the end of the first half by Jonathan Brown was a momentum swinger for the Sunbirds who trailed 34-31 at halftime.
The change in Big Mo was apparent with Fresno Pacific going on an 11-0 run to start the second half, 14-0 including Brown's shot, which forced the 'Swords to use two timeouts in quick succession. The run ended thanks to
Bill Awet (Sydney, Australia/SIU Edwardsville/Victory Rock Prep, Fla., HS) who sank a 3-pointer which seemed to have momentum back to the home team.
Small accounted for six points during Chaminade's 10-2 run where Cartaino's layup gave back the lead to the 'Swords, 47-46 with less than 14 minutes left. Over the next four minutes, there were two ties and three lead changes, the last coming with a 3-ball from
Isaac Amaral-Artharee (Portland, Ore./Central Catholic) which put Chaminade up, 57-55.
The 'Swords began pulling away eventually building the lead to 71-61 with 4:44 remaining but the FPU had one more run left. They slowly chopped away at the deficit and with 40 seconds left, Coleman dropped a bucket to draw the Sunbirds to 74-73. After Chaminade couldn't get a score on its end, FPU had a chance for the game-winner but Coleman layup with 5 seconds left failed to fall then Sean Nealon-Lino's jumper was also off the mark with just a second left.
Chaminade was out-rebounded, 32-31, out-assisted, 13-11, and out-stolen, 15-9, but made 10 free throws to Fresno Pacific's three.
The Silverswords are back in action Wednesday as they face second-place Point Loma at McCabe Gymnasium at 7:30 p.m.
