PUKALANI, Maui, Hawai'i – If Saturday is a preview of what is to come, then the 2024-25 season could be a most interesting one for the Chaminade University men's basketball team.
Competing in their only exhibition game before the start of the regular season next weekend, the Silverswords, who were picked to finish ninth in the 14-team Pacific West Conference Preseason Poll, put a scare into their Division I cousins, University of Hawai'i Manoa, falling 85-80 at Ka'ulaheanuiokamoku Gymnasium on the Kamehamemeha-Maui High School campus.
The exhibition was a part of a two-day goodwill event put on by the Hawai'i Tourism Authority. Both Chaminade and UH Manoa took part in the free keiki basketball clinic at Lahainaluna High School on Friday evening.
Amound Anderson (Eastvale, Calif./Fullerton College/Leuzinger HS) had a team-high 19 points, hitting four 3-pointers, while
Jackson Last (Hurricane, Utah/Robert Morris University/Hurricane HS) added 16 for the new-look 'Swords, who have 12 new faces on this year's roster. The pair were two of five 'Swords who hit the double-digit scoring mark.
Jamir Thomas (Berkeley, Calif./City College of San Francisco/Berkeley HS), the team's lone returning starter from a year ago, had 14 points while
Roland Banks II (Bakersfield, Calif./Fullerton College/Cathedral HS) and
Kris King (Washington, D.C./Vincennes University/Fork Union Military Academy) had 13 and 10, respectively.
The game featured 12 ties and 14 lead changes, with Chaminade leading for a majority of the first half, its largest being four (23-19) at the 8:13 mark. A 9-0 Rainbow Warriors run to end the first half gave the designated home team a 40-33 edge at the break.
Hawai'i lead by as many as 50-35 midway through the second half but Anderson hit three triples, the last of which closed the gap to 62-61 with 9:24 left followed by a pair of Last free throws which gave the Silverswords their final lead at 63-62 less than a minute later. UH managed to push its edge back to eight with five minutes left before an 8-1 CUH, capped by Anderson's layup, narrowed the deficit to 77-76 with just under three minutes on the clock.
The Rainbow Warriors would score nine of the game's next 11 points to pull away down the stretch.
The 'Swords shot 32.5 percent, going 25-of-77 from the floor with 10-of-31 from beyond long range while hitting 20-of-27 from the charity stripe. Although they were out-rebounded 53-to-36, they stymied the Rainbow Warriors to 29 turnovers, converting them into 27 points.
Hawai'i was 28-of-54 from the field (51.9 percent) and was 24-of-38 at the foul line.
The Silverswords open regular season action Friday, Nov. 8, facing the University of Alaska in the PacWest/GNAC Challenge at The Shark Tank with tipoff at 5 p.m. The second half of the Challenge shifts to McCabe Gymnasium on Saturday, Nov. 9 when they meet the University of Alaska Anchorage at 5 p.m. HPU faces Alaska in the 7 p.m. nightcap.
