RIVERSIDE, Calif. >> A week that began for Chaminade with celebration before being interrupted by tribulation ended in elimination from the Pacific West Conference men’s basketball tournament.
Azusa Pacific ended the Silverswords’ season with a 79-69 victory in Thursday night’s first round at Cal Baptist’s events center, and will play the tournament hosts in tonight’s semifinals.
In the women’s tournament, second-seeded Hawaii Pacific received a bye into today’s semifinals and will play sixth-seeded Dominican. The Sharks are ranked fourth in the West Region by the NCAA and 22nd nationally by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.
Chaminade coach Eric Bovaird viewed the loss as a miniature version of the previous six days.
“It was a game of roller-coaster ups and downs,” he said. “It’s been kind of like this week, a roller-coaster ride of emotions.”
Chaminade (16-12) earned the tournament’s final berth in the regular-season’s final game Saturday night by defeating Azusa Pacific at McCabe Gymnasium 80-72. Had the ’Swords lost, the Academy of Art in San Francisco would have received the last spot.
“Our guys played an unbelievable game,” Bovaird said. “We were on a mission. If we don’t win, we’re out.”
But on Monday came news that assistant coach Tim Bross’ 8-month-old baby died.
“We were meeting with players in the morning and the next thing you know, the police called him,” Bovaird said. “I knew when the police called him, it wasn’t good. They said, ‘You’d better rush to the hospital real quick. Your baby stopped breathing.’
“It was definitely tough. A lot of people in the Chaminade community are close with Coach Bross. He means a lot to us. It was a very rough few days, for sure. We couldn’t really even practice, emotionally.”
So the ’Swords came to California and watched the third-seeded Cougars (20-9) take a 13-2 lead in the first 3 minutes, 56 seconds.
“We came out with energy,” Azusa Pacific coach Justin Leslie said. “More than anything, having energy on the defensive side of the ball really sets the stage for us.”
Bovaird believed that energy came from Saturday night’s game, when his team outhustled the Cougars for disputed balls.
“The other night versus Azusa at our place, we got all of them,” he said. “I’m sure (the Cougars) reviewed the situation and watched us just beating them all over the court.”
Trailing 16-5, sixth-seeded Chaminade responded with its own 13-2 blitz to forge an 18-18 tie with 12:13 left in the first half. Then with 9:31 before halftime, Braden Koelliker’s driving lay-in put the ’Swords ahead for the only time, 22-21.
Azusa Pacific followed with an 8-0 spree to regain a 29-22 lead. Chaminade narrowed its deficit to 36-33 with 2:37 left in the half, and had a chance to draw within one point after Justin Bridges made a steal 46 seconds later.
Then came the game’s turning point.
Koelliker tried to convert that steal into a lay-in, but Azusa Pacific’s Selom Mawugbe blocked Koelliker’s shot, secured the rebound, started a fast break and finished the ensuing possession with a driving lay-in. Mawugbe’s basket started another 8-0 spurt that gave the Cougars a 44-33 halftime lead.
“When Selom makes a block like that out of nowhere, it lifts everybody up and everybody feeds off of that energy,” Leslie said. “You could see it.”
Bovaird believes that the 6-foot-9 sophomore, whose 80 blocks ranked fifth in NCAA Division II as the week began, provides a unique coaching challenge.
“It’s probably the first time in my Division II coaching career that I had to game-plan around a shot blocker,” Bovaird said. “He’s pretty special with his timing. He’s very, very disruptive.”
In the second half, the Cougars led by as many as 14 points as they secured their sixth win in eight games.
“We had a tough week, but at the end of the day, when we step between those lines, I just think we have to be ready to play more than the other team,” said Bridges, who scored a team-high 12 points. “Tonight, I just think that they outplayed us. It essentially came down to who wanted it more.”
Eric Scheive and Dantley Walker each added 11 points, with Scheive grabbing 10 rebounds. Austin Pope finished with 10 points, but scored only two in the first half. Azusa Pacific’s Petar Kutlesic led all scorers with 20 points.
