FRESNO, Calif. – The Chaminade University men's basketball team on Wednesday opened their final regular season mainland trip with a 92-83 loss to Fresno Pacific at the Special Events Center.
Jackson Last (Hurricane, Utah/Robert Morris University/Hurricane HS) had 22 points for the Silverswords, who hoisted up a school record 48 3-pointers, breaking the previous record of 40 set in January 2008 versus Utah Tech (formerly Dixie State) and again last January against Dominican.
However, the sheer volume of triples translated to only 13 makes. And although they forced 31 turnovers – the most committed by a CUH Division II opponent since turnovers began being tracked in 2006 – and turned them into 28 points, it was not enough to offset the Sunbirds' 65.2 percent (30-of-46) shooting efficiency.
Kent King (Washington, D.C./Vincennes University/Fork Union Military Academy) added 12 points with
Kameron Ng (Kaneohe, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Univ. of Hawai'i Hilo/Saint Francis HS) chipping in with 10 and four assists.
Chaminade, which also hurt itself with three technical fouls, fell to 12-5 overall and 6-4 in the Pacific West Conference.
Fresno Pacific, which snapped a six-game losing streak to CUH, got 30 points from Jonah Geron who hit seven triples, five of which came during a first half run, and made nine of his 10 free throw tries. Although FPU is just 6-12 overall and 3-7 in the PacWest, they extended their home winning streak to three straight.
Geron hit all five of his first-half triples during an 18-3 run during a three-minute span midway through the first half, putting the 'Swords down 24-9 and forced them to play catch-up the rest of the game.
Geron had 19 in the first half while Chaminade took 28 shots from beyond the arc, making just five to put them in a 46-33 hole at halftime.
A layup by
Amound Anderson (Los Angeles, Calif./Fullerton College/Leuzinger HS) off a
Jamir Thomas (Berkeley, Calif./City College of San Francisco/Berkeley HS) steal finally got the 'Swords' deficit to single digits at 62-53 with 14:09 left in the game.
The Silverswords got to within four at 78-74 following Last's four-point play at the 6:29 mark but couldn't get a bucket to fall during the next four minutes, allowing FPU to hold them off down the stretch.
Chaminade shot 35.1 percent from the floor and made 16-of-28 free throws. The 'Swords grabbed 22 rebounds, 12 on the offensive end, and had 12 assists to just seven turnovers.
Fresno Pacific made 17-of-27 shots in the first 20 minutes and 13-of-19 in the final. Of its 16 3-pointers, 10 were makes and the Sunbirds hit 22 of their 30 from the charity stripe. They also pulled down 41 rebounds.
The Silverswords will make the six-hour drive from the Central Valley down the coast to the PacWest's southern-most California institution in San Diego where they will face three-time defending conference champion Point Loma, ranked No. 21 in the D2CSC Media Poll, on Saturday. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. Hawai'i time.
