Bittersweet Senior Night for men’s basketball

The Chaminade men’s basketball team has endured a frustrating season and for the second year in a row has failed to qualify for the PacWest playoffs, a task almost expected after winning the tournament just three years ago.

Saturday shared varied significances for the team. Not only was it Senior Night, but there was also a chance to qualify for the tournament playoffs if the Swords could secure a win, and other results went the right way. Chaminade needed Dominican to lose earlier in the day if it were to have any chance of qualifying for the playoffs; unfortunately Dominican beat Fresno Pacific 87-79, which made it mathematically impossible for Chaminade to qualify, even with a win against Point Loma. The players and coaches of course were devastated, especially coach Eric Bovaird.

“I was keeping track of the live stats [of the Dominican game],” said Bovaird. “It was heartbreaking to know that destiny was in somebody else’s hands, watching the score knowing there was nothing I could do about it. I’m disappointed for our seniors. We know and they know that if we did get the opportunity [to reach the playoffs] we would have had as good a chance as anybody.”

Even though any hope of securing a playoff spot was impossible, the Swords defeated Point Loma 92-86 to end the season on a winning note. The win provided a glimpse of what could have been this season.

Chaminade stomached some nail bitingly close loses this year with seven of them being within a five-point margin. Coaches and players all agreed that Thursday’s 100-99 overtime loss to Azusa Pacific was the standout that left hearts heavy.

Kuany Kuany had another fantastic game on Saturday night, leading the team in points (18) and assists (8); he agreed with his teammates that the loss to Azusa on Thursday was the hardest to swallow.

“The game against Azusa Pacific, we knew that if we won that game we would have been in the playoffs no matter what,” Kuany said. “We gave it our all and it came down to the last possession in overtime and lost it by one point, which unfortunately ended our season. It’s been a