Last Sunday, the Chaminade men’s basketball team had the Division I University of Hawaii team on the ropes.
With 8 1/2 minutes to play, the Silverswords had sprinted out to a seven-point lead, forcing Hawaii to call a timeout as the crowd of 2,200 at the Stan Sheriff Arena went silent. The visiting Swords couldn’t hold on, though, as the Rainbow Warriors took the lead with 4:46 to go and eventually pulled away for a 93-87 win in the exhibition game.
CUH won the turnover battle by forcing 22 mistakes and committing only eight. But UH dominated on the boards (59-32) and at the free-throw line (38-14). The Swords just didn’t shoot well enough (6-for-25 from 3-point range) to overcome those disparities.
“We moved the ball pretty well,” said senior guard Nathan Medina, who suffered a cramp late in the second half that forced him to miss valuable time. “We forced them into turnovers. If we shot better from 3 early on we would of gotten them.”
Senior guard Kent King erupted for 23 points on 9-17 shooting and 2-6 from 3-point range. He also grabbed 9 rebounds. Medina helped with 17 points along with senior guard Roland Banks II and Nate Sasser III, who both scored 14 points.
Chaminade’s defensive pressure which forced 22 turnovers that led to 30 points. When the Silverswords used their full-court press, it had UH struggling to get past halfcourt.
Though the team’s 3-point shooting struggled, the turnovers often left to fastbreak layups, which was part of the reason how the team shot 54.7% from 2-point range.
“I finally have the guys,” said Chaminade head coach Eric Bovaird, who is starting his 15th year with the Swords. “I think we can play this style of basketball we want to play. We forced a lot of turnovers tonight. We shot the ball well from the field.”
Bovaird and some of the players said one of the biggest impacts to this game was UH Manoa’s number of offensive rebounds they had. The Rainbow Warriors grabbed an absurd 22 offensive rebounds, which led to 24 second-chance points. Chaminade managed to grab just 24 defensive rebounds.
“You look at them and they look, they get all this money and stuff like that, and we just play basketball, and there’s no agenda with us,” said senior center Fletcher MacDonald.
This is the second straight year where Chaminade has challenged UH Manoa in an exhibition game. In 2024, the Rainbow Warriors held off Chaminade 85-80.
Chaminade will next play Nobel in an exhibition game at McCabe Gymnasium on Friday, Nov. 7. Tipoff is 7 p.m. The regular season will get underway with two games in Alaska in mid November. The Swords will compete in the Maui Invitational and will face Washington State on Nov. 24 in Lahaina.