March Madness was served with barbecue chicken, noodles and a side of accomplishment Sunday at the Vi and Paul Loo Student Center. That’s where Chaminade, some three hours removed from its arrival at Honolulu International Airport, continued to celebrate Saturday’s PacWest men’s basketball tournament title while watching the NCAA II Tournament selection show and having an early dinner.

The Silverswords, winning the conference’s automatic berth, had to wait for the final bracket to be announced to see the school’s name on the screen, with a number of the players clapping and taking pictures of the bracket with their phones. Unlike last year, when Chaminade wasn’t sure it would receive one of the 42 at-large bids, the suspense Sunday was over who, where and when in the West Region.

It will be host and top-seeded Cal State San Bernardino in Friday’s final quarterfinal game at Coussoulis Arena. Besides eighth-seeded Chaminade, the PacWest again received two at-large bids in the West Region in fifth-seeded Cal Baptist, the conference’s regular-season champion, which lost to the ‘Swords in Friday’s semifinals, and sixth-seeded Dixie State, which fell to Hawaii Pacific in Thursday’s semifinals.

"We’re excited just to get in," said Chaminade coach Eric Bovaird, whose team advanced to the NCAA tournament for a second consecutive year, a program first. "The hardest thing is to get into the tournament, to be one of the 64 out of 302 Division II teams in the country. There’s a lot of good teams fighting just to get in.

"It’s a tough region — the West is traditionally one of the stronger regions. I had a strong feeling we’d see (CSU San Bernardino). They had a great year, a strong body of work over the season. Playing the hosts is always tough, playing them at their home the first game. They’re coming off a loss, so maybe they have some doubts."

The Coyotes (23-4) lost twice to open the season, at UCLA and against Washburn in Las Vegas. The two other losses were also on the road to conference foes that also made the regional: fourth-seeded Chico State and seventh-seeded Cal State Stanislaus, which upset 12th-ranked CSUSB 72-67 Friday in the CCAA semifinals.

The Silverswords (19-12) have won their last four since falling to Brigham Young-Hawaii 99-98 in overtime on Feb. 27 at home.

"Right now, we’re as good as we’ve ever been at any point of the season," Bovaird said. "Right now, we’re really healthy. Our kids are mentally strong and focused. I think we’re at our peak."

Chaminade hit 15 3-pointers in Saturday’s 99-83 win over Dominican at Point Loma Nazarene. Sophomore guard James Harper was 9-for-12 from behind the arc en route to a season-high 31 points and all-tournament honors. It gave the ‘Swords their fourth PacWest title and put them into the NCAA tournament for a fifth time.

Junior guard Lee Bailey added 14 points and nine assists and was named the tournament’s MVP.

Senior forward Tyree Harrison finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.