LAHAINA >> Notre Dame coach Mike Brey jokingly called it the “Catholic championship of Hawaii” the day before his Fighting Irish faced Chaminade in the first round of the Maui Jim Maui Invitational.
Chaminade had the Pope — point guard Austin Pope — but the 13th-ranked Fighting Irish collared the outcome, an 83-56 victory on Monday at the Lahaina Civic.
The sizable Silverswords went rebound for rebound with the Irish. But it wasn’t the stat that mattered, as stars Matt Farrell and Bonzie Colson combined for 50 points on 17-for-23 shooting in the rare Maui quarterfinal with a small, subdued crowd.
Brey, sporting a Maui casual look on the sideline in T-shirt and shorts, actually took the matchup pretty seriously.
“I was pleased with our start against I think a very good team in Chaminade,” Brey said. “They’re going to be very good in their league. They’ve got great size.”
After the Silverswords hung in range of the Irish for about 22 minutes, UND (53.8 percent shooting) pulled away. Chaminade dropped to 7-91 all-time on Maui, with its last win coming in 2012 against Texas.
“Momentum’s going, you’re knocking down 3s and everything’s going the way you had game-planned for,” Chaminade coach Eric Bovaird said. “All of a sudden … some things go wrong. All the good teams that I’ve played against, whether it’s North Carolina or Kansas, these teams have the ability to expose weaknesses.”
On Monday, it was ball screen coverage, among other things.
UND (4-0) advanced to face upstart LSU (3-0) in today’s second semifinal at 5:30 p.m. Chaminade (2-1) faces Michigan (3-1) in the consolation bracket at 3 p.m. A first-time Maui champ is now guaranteed.
Chaminade will miss its signature event for the first time next year, as tournament runner KemperLesnik introduced alternating-year participation for the local D-II school.
The Silverswords took a couple of stabs at making a Cinderella push to the semifinals. Forward Brett Reed hit a one-footed 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer, making it a nine-point game.
“When you have a shot like that that goes in before the half … it’s a huge energy play,” said forward Erik Scheive, who scored a team-high 17.
Pope (11 points, four assists) hit a deep 3 falling over to open the period, cutting it to 38-32. But Notre Dame answered with a 13-4 run, with 11 coming from either Farrell or Colson.
“There is a reason they’re on all the preseason lists and everything like that,” Pope said. “We just tried to make it as tough as possible. I think in the atmosphere sometimes our concepts, we forgot them. But tip your hat to them, they’re good players.”
Sueing productive in Cal loss
Former Maryknoll School player Justice Sueing was impressive in his Maui debut, scoring 20 points on 7-for-12 shooting in Cal’s 92-82 loss to No. 6 Wichita State.
Sueing is the son of the former UH player of the same name. The 6-foot-7 freshman forward finished his high school career at Mater Dei High in California.
“I used to sit on the couch with my pops, and he’d go over how I would want to get on that (Maui) stage at some point in my career,” Sueing said. “Being here with Cal, I think we took a big step in moving forward and showing the world and all the teams what we’re capable of doing.”
LSU holds off Michigan
Tremont Waters scored 21 points and set up the go-ahead basket with a spectacular no-look assist, helping the Tigers (3-0) rally past the Wolverines (3-1) in the Maui Invitational.
