Having won the past 7 out of 8 games, Chaminade men’s basketball is having its best season in three years. The team currently has seven conference wins and only three losses. The team is promising to “win every game until the season is over.”
“We’re going to win conference,” said senior guard Bennie Murray. “I actually think we’re going to go to regionals and win the whole thing. I mean if we could beat Texas [at the Maui Invitational], there is not a Division II team in the country that should beat us.”
Last week, the Silverswords (10-8 overall, 7-3 Pac West Conference) dropped a game to Fresno Pacific, 105-91. Had the Silverswords not lost this game, the team would have a current winning streak of eight games. However, the Swords are not deterred.
“Looking at our schedule, I don’t see why we should lose another one of our games,” said junior transfer Mike Green. “Our schedule was extremely tough early on, and we lost a lot of games, but we learned about ourselves during that stretch. Now we’re third in the conference after winning eight of the last 10 games.”
This Saturday the Swords will be playing against BYU-Hawaii at the Cannon Activities Center in Laie. Last season the Swords were defeated by BYU-Hawaii in a tough game with a final score of 76-65.
“That was really rough,” sophomore guard, Lee Bailey. “This time I’m feeling good. We feel prepared and confident. So if we come out and play as a team, we are going to be fine.”
On March 2, the Swords will be playing Hawaii Pacific at home in McCabe Gym. All three of the players interviewed agreed that this was the game they were looking forward to most this season.
“It’s different with those guys,” Bailey said. “I mean we see those guys all the time, so that is a little bit of a pride game, more than anything.”
Not only will the game against HPU be the last of the season, but it will also be senior night for Chaminade, which is something that senior Bennie Murray is bittersweet about.
“I really adore my teammates, I mean these guys are just awesome,” Murray said. “I’m not even trying to be dramatic or saying this just because of the interview, but this group has been my favorite that I have ever played with. And I have been playing basketball since I was 6 years old and this is without a doubt the best group ever.”
When asked what they would say to their fans if given the chance, all of the players wanted to thank all of the fans for their support.
“It means more than you might think to have your support,” Green said.
They also added that there is no reason why fans shouldn’t want to come watch the Swords play this season.
“We play entertaining basketball,” Murray said. “I mean we’ve got a guy like Dre [Haskins] that can jump up and dunk the basketball, or if you wanna see Lee Bailey speed past everybody, or even if you want to see Waly [Coulibaly] shoot the 3 pointers, whatever you want to see in basketball, we have it and you should come watch it.
The Swords next home game will be against UH-Hilo Monday at 7:30 pm.
