Senior Bennie Murray scored a game-high 23 points and third-seeded Chaminade avenged last Saturday’s overtime loss to Hawaii Pacific by eliminating the sixth-seeded Sea Warriors from the inaugural PacWest men’s basketball tournament in Azusa Pacific, Calif., 74-62 on Thursday.
Junior Lee Bailey and seniors De’Andre Haskins and Waly Coulibaly all finished with 13 points for the Silverswords (18-9), who will face second-seeded Grand Canyon (23-6) at 3:30 p.m. Hawaii time at the Felix Event Center.
Joining Chaminade in today’s second semifinal is fourth-seeded Brigham Young Hawaii. The Seasiders (16-11) got two free throws by Bracken Funk with 12 seconds left to edge fourth-seeded Dominican 65-64. Junior Ale scored 24 points, including three 3-pointers, and Robbie Mitchell added 12 points to lift the Seasiders.
BYUH takes on top-seeded Dixie State (20-6) at 5:30 p.m. Hawaii time.
Chaminade outrebounded HPU (10-16) 38-26, with Haskins coming up with six of the team’s 23 defensive boards.
Marko Cukic scored 16 points for the Sea Warriors, including 7-for-10 from the floor. Malte Ziegenhagen added 16 before fouling out with 22 seconds left.
The game was close until the final 4:46. Tied at 60, the Silverswords went on a 13-0 run that included five points in 29 seconds on a jumper by Coulibaly and Murray’s fourth 3-pointer.
WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT
Dixie State 81, BYU-Hawaii 63
Senior guard Jameia McDuffy scored 17 points and junior forward Jazzmyn Davis came off the bench for 14 but it was not enough as the fifth-seeded Vulcans (13-11) were eliminated by the fourth-seeded Red Storm.
Dixie State (15-11) advances to play top-seeded Hawaii Pacific (18-6) in today’s semifinal at 1 p.m. Hawaii time. The Sea Warriors, winners of their past five, defeated the Red Storm 79-72 last month for the first victory in St. George, Utah, in HPU program history.
Johnna Brown had 10 of her 18 points in the first half to lead Dixie State to a 37-19 halftime advantage. Mandy Munns came off the bench for a game-high 22 point for the Red Storm, which held the Vulcans scoreless for nine minutes in the first half.
Academy of Art 77, BYUH 50
Ariel Dale scored 13 points to lead four teammates in double-figure scoring as the third-seeded Urban Knights (21-8) knocked the sixth-seeded Seasiders out of the tournament.
Junior guard Danna Lynn Hooper had a game-high 21 points for BYUH (5-22).
All-PacWest teams announced
Chaminade senior guard De’Andre Haskins was named the men’s player of the year and Hawaii Pacific’s Reid Takatsuka the women’s coach of the year as the PacWest announced its all-conference teams in conjunction with Thursday’s tournament play.
Haskins was second in conference scoring (19.1 ppg) and free-throw percent (84 percent).
BYU-Hawaii senior guard Junior Ale joined Haskins on the first team, the only two players from Hawaii’s four D-II schools to be so honored. BYUH junior center DeAndre Medlock and Chaminade senior guard Bennie Murray were named to the second team.
First-team honors went to BYUH senior forward Shayla Washington while HPU had three players on the second team in junior guard Skye Savini and senior guards Melody Ladrido and Susannah Walmsley. Hawaii Hilo junior guard Kamie Imai was named to the second team.
