Chaminade kept blowing past the UH-Hilo men’s basketball team. Much like the wind, the Vulcans couldn’t see the Silverswords swooshing by them but only felt their presence when the ball dropped through the basket.
The Silverswords put on an efficient high-scoring performance to blow out the Vulcans 92-70 on Sunday night at the Afook Chinen Civic Auditorium, winning their second straight.
Sasa Vuksanovic scored 18 points on 7 of 13 shooting, Kupaa Harrison added 12 points on 5 of 6 shooting, Elisha Duplechan had 11 points, and his twin brother Isaiah Duplechan had 10 points for the Vulcans (9-10, 7-8 PacWest), who shot 50 percent from the field, including 4 of 16 from long distance.
Tyler Cartaino scored 26 points on 11 of 15 shooting, Isaac Amaral-Artharee added 18 points off the bench, Kendall Small had 16 points, and Eliet Donley scored 11 points for the Silverswords (13-7, 11-4), who converted 60 percent from the floor, including 3 of 11 from 3-point range.
Chaminade remained in third in the conference standings while UHH is tied for sixth, holding the last spot for the playoffs.
“Chaminade is a high-level offensive machine,” UHH coach GE Coleman said. “Their kids are physical and that allowed them to get to the basket.”
Chaminade outscored UHH on points in the paint, 54-36, points off turnovers, 23-16, and bench points, 37-18.
The Silverswords took a commanding 49-33 halftime lead, shooting 70 percent from the field, repeatedly beating the Vuls off the dribble to drop in layups.
The Vuls had major difficulty in getting stops. The helpside defense was often late in rotations and Chaminade poured in easy buckets.
“We had nine turnovers and five bad shots in the first half, and that’s an automatic basket for them on the other end,” Coleman said. “If we’re going to beat Chaminade the next time we play them, we have to make them work on the offensive end. They didn’t really need to shoot the 3 and that’s how they almost beat Georgia (in the Maui Invitational, in an 80-77 loss.). They don’t really have a weakness.”
The Silverswords don’t want to beat someone to death from long distance, or at least not against the Vulcans. Their style is death by a thousand paper cuts or countless layups.
Still, UHH kept it relatively close by shooting 52 percent from the floor in the first half. Vuksanovic had a mismatch in the post with his height and footwork. He sidestepped Chaminade’s defense and scored 12 points on 5 of 8 shooting.
Harrison, the team’s leading scorer at 18 points per game, couldn’t find his shot in the first half and had just six points on 2 of 3 shooting.
Cartaino, who leads the conference in scoring at 21.2 points per game, lit up UHH in the first half with 17 points on 8 of 10 shooting. Small dribble-penetrated his way for 12 points on 5 of 5 shooting.
The Chaminade men are sort of the opposite of the perennially woeful women. Chaminade has qualified for the PacWest postseason the last three years and reached the conference championship last year.
The Vuls did a nice job keeping it close early. In the first quarter, they had smooth ball movement, working the ball inside and then out for Damani Whitlock, who drained an open 3-pointer for an early 10-8 lead.
Then UHH’s ball-handing issues with turnovers proved costly. It seemed every time the Vuls had a turnover, the Silverswords ran a layup drill them. Chaminade scored six layups off UHH turnovers in the first half, the last for a 33-20 lead with 7:45 left.
UHH finished with 13 turnovers; Chaminade had 11 turnovers.
When the Silverswords weren’t attacking the rim, they moving the ball for 3-point attempts. Amaral-Artharee swished a 3-pointer for a 44-27 cushion with 2:38 left until halftime.
Chaminade kept going inside to get high-percentage looks and outscored UHH 34-16 on points in the paint. The Silverswords also burned the Vuls with points off turnover, 17-8 in the first half.
Vuksanovic swished a 3-pointer right at the buzzer to cut Chaminade’s lead to 49-33 at the break.
In the second half, Whitlock drew an offensive charge on Cartaino with 13:45 remaining. But UHH had a turnover, and Donley scored on a layup for a 60-42 cushion.
Then Cartaino beat UHH’s defense down the court for a transition layup, and then he got in the lane and swished a pull-up jump shot for a 64-42 lead.
Morningstar Takapu scored with 6:10 remaining to push Chaminade’s lead to 84-54, the biggest of the game.