SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – The Chaminade University men's basketball team nearly did the improbable in Thursday's meeting at Dominican University of California.
Down by 10 late in the second half, the Silverswords, down to just seven players, rallied and took the lead before a Penguins' bucket with 13 seconds left sent them to an 85-84 loss at the Conlon Center, their second straight final possession loss on their current road trip.
Nathan Medina (Long Beach, Calif./Biola University/Valley Christian HS) and
Kent King (Washington, D.C./Vincennes University/Fork Union Military Academy) paced the 'Swords with 17 points each while
Fletcher MacDonald (Wollongong, Australia/Lubbock Christian Univ./Newington College HS) chipped in with 15 on 7-of-10 shooting. King also had 11 rebounds.
Roland Banks II (Bakersfield, Calif./Fullerton College/Cathedral HS) and
Kris King (Washington, D.C./Vincennes University/Fork Union Military Academy) had 14 and 11 on the scorebook, respectively, with the former dishing out seven assists and the latter getting five steals.
The loss dropped the 'Swords, who have lost six straight on the continental United States, to 13-14 overall with an 11-10 mark in the Pacific West Conference, putting their conference tournament chances in jeopardy. They are currently tied with Concordia and Jessup for seventh and are one game behind the Penguins, Vanguard and Fresno Pacific for the final three spots in next week's PacWest Championships in San Diego. The top six teams in the standings earn bids.
Nick Medeiros had a season-high-tying 27 points, including the go-ahead jumper, to help Dominican split the season series and improve to 17-10 and 12-9 in the PacWest.
After trailing by as many as nine in the first half, the 'Swords used a 10-0 burst with
Brycen Shackelford (Folsom, Calif./Folsom) and
Kent King's three points each to assume a 36-29 lead with 3:45 before halftime. A Dominican bucket with a minute left cut CUH's edge to 42-38 at the break.
Medina's triple 3 minutes into the second half put the 'Swords up, 51-45, but DUC answered, thanks to four and-1 opportunities, resulting in a 14-4 run over a three-minute span, to put them up, 61-55.
Down 82-72 with 2:26 remaining, Banks' 3-ball 18 seconds later started the Chaminade rally. Medina hit a pair of free throws at the 1:46 mark, then MacDonald intercepted an errant Penguins' pass at halfcourt, leading to
Kent King's trey, trimming the deficit to 83-80.
Chaminade then forced a five-second violation on Stephen Ransom, leading to Medina's driving layup, cutting the Penguins' lead to a single digit. On Dominican's ensuing possession, Darius Best picked up his fifth foul on an offensive push-off, putting the ball back in the 'Swords' hands. Banks then found MacDonald on the low block for a layup, giving them an 84-83 edge with 25 seconds left.
But the Penguins responded on their possession when Medeiros knocked down a foul-line extended pull-up jumper with 13 seconds left to teeter the lead back in their favor. Chaminade worked the ball back but
Brandon Haddock's (Southlake, Texas/University of Utah/Carroll HS) potential go-ahead 3-pointer with 4 seconds left was off the mark as was MacDonald's desperation tip-in try with a second left.
The 'Swords managed to knock down two inbounds passes including one with 0.2 seconds left but could not secure a desperation tip-in.
Chaminade finished with a 44.1 shooting percentage with eight triples and 16-for-24 free throws. They grabbed 35 rebounds with 15 assists and forced 22 DUC giveaways leading to 28 points.
Dominican shot 47.6 percent from the field, making 8-of-21 triples, 17-of-25 at the charity stripe with 43 boards and 14 assists. They also outscored Chaminade, 21-14, on fastbreaks, most of them coming on quick length-of-the-court passes on change of possessions.
The Silverswords will be at Jessup on Saturday in their regular season finale where they need a win and receive help from tiebreakers to secure a spot in the tournament. Tipoff is at 1:30 p.m. Hawai'i time.
