HONOLULU – Coming into Tuesday's Pacific West Conference opener, home court advantage was supposed to be with Hawai'i Pacific University.
However, in a scheduling anomaly, the Silverswords had the benefit of playing their first four regular season games at HPU's Shark Tank in a pair of non-conference tournaments. So too did the Sharks.
So in a matchup of who has the facility bragging rights, it was the faux home team that came away with the conference-opening win as Chaminade, which trailed for much of the game, fought used a key late run to pull out a 69-60 win over the Sharks.
Jalen Brattain (Shallowater, Texas/Lubbock Christian Univ./Shallowater HS) led five Silverswords in double-figures, coming off the bench to pour in a career-high 23 points, hitting 8-of-12 shots from the floor. The junior transfer also pulled down nine boards for the 'Swords who improved to 3-2 on the season, 1-0 in the PacWest.
Scott Ator (Murphy, Texas/College of the Sequoias/Wylie HS) added 13 points for Chaminade while
Raazhel Watkins (Concord, Calif./Sacramento State/College Park HS) had 11 points and seven boards.
Isaac Amaral-Artharee (Portland, Ore./Central Catholic), fresh off his career-high in scoring on Saturday, scored all 10 of his points in the second half to help Chaminade pull away down the stretch. He also tied his career-high with eight boards and a season-best four assists
Melo Sanchez led HPU (3-2, 0-1 PacWest) with 14 points.
Chaminade which trailed 51.1 percent of the game and by as many as 62 percent in the second half, used a 9-0 run late to turn a two-point deficit to a seven-point lead with five minutes remaining.
The 'Swords had their first lead on Ator's triple a minute into the game before HPU responded and took the lead a minute later on a Jalen Chandler bucket. Chaminade would found themselves behind for much of the half, trailing by as many as seven (19-12) at the 11:38 mark. But the Silverswords caught them at 28-all with 3:37 left in the half on Ator's layup, then went ahead on their next possession on Reeves' pull-up 3-pointer. The 'Swords would take a 33-31 lead into halftime.
HPU reclaimed the lead at 37-35 on a Mason Landdeck triple one minute into the second half. But Amaral-Artharee, who was limited to just two shots in the first half, came alive with back-to-back 3-pointers which tied it at 41. Over the next eight minutes, the biggest lead either team had was three.
With 7:16 left, the home crowd, like the newly active Mauna Loa volcano on the Big Island, erupted when Landeck lobbed an alley-oop to Chandler for a flush to put the Sharks up 54-52. But Brattain started the game's pivotal 9-0 run with a pair of free throws followed by
Ross Reeves' (Orem, Utah/Snow College/Orem HS) steal and breakaway layup for two of his 10 points to put Chaminade ahead for good. Amaral-Artharee then hit a pull-up jumper followed by a Brattain free throw and a Watkins follow to put the 'Swords up 59-54 with 5:29 left.
Up 63-60 lead, Chaminade had one final key sequence, starting with Brattain burying a 19-foot straightaway shot with 2:31 left. On its next possession, Watkins drove the lane against two defenders then dished it to a trailing Brattain for a monstrous flush which all but sealed it. Amaral-Artharee put the finishing touches with a pull-up jumper with 48 seconds left.
Chaminade shot 45 percent from the floor, making 27-of-60 shots and were also 8-for-23 from 3-point range while holding HPU to 38.3 with 6-for-28 from long range. The Sharks managed to out-rebound CUH 38-to-33 but the 'Swords dropped 12 dimes – five by
Braden Olsen (West Linn, Ore./Gannon University/West Linn HS) – to HPU's nine.
The win also gave Chaminade two points in the winter portion of the PacWest Hawai'i Challenge.
The Silverswords will make their long-awaited McCabe Gymnasium home debut Saturday when they host Hawai'i Hilo at 2 p.m.
