The Chaminade Silverswords women’s basketball fell to 0-2 in conference on Saturday, losing 75-61 to University of Hawaii at Hilo in the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium. Although Swords are off to an early season struggle, they’re still fighting for their first win of the season.
“We’re going to do some refining and work on some offensive stuff,” Chaminade Head coach Travis Brewster said. “They’ve really picked it up defensively so I’m not really worried about that.”
They got off to a strong start to begin the game, trailing 18-17 at the end of the first quarter. Chaminade continued to hang around through the second quarter, trading buckets and keeping the deficit within single digits. In middle of the second quarter, UH Hilo switched into the same 2-2-1 full court press that Chaminade has been struggling to beat all season.
But midway through the third and all the way into the fourth, UH Hilo began to separate taking advantage of turnovers and scoring in transition. UH Hilo ended the game with 15 points off turnovers.
“When you have less turnovers, it shows you a little bit that they’re starting to understand how to play with each other better and know the system,” Brewster said. “Starting to understand the offensive system, the offensive scheme, and the offensive system is always a work in progress.”
Despite the loss, Chaminade senior guard Dezaray Carter led all scorers in the game with 18-points. Carter shot 6-9 from the field and went 6-7 at the free-throw line. Carter’s 18-point performance is her new career high, topping her prior career high where she had 14-points against Fresno Pacific on Jan 15, 2025.
Chaminade junior guard Alyssa Schuetze also chipped in with 14-points for the swords shooting 6-8 from the field and a perfect 2-2 from the free-throw line. Schuetze was apart of the games leading scorers, right behind 6-foot-1 sophomore center for UH Hilo Travina Harris who had 15-points. Chaminade’s 5-foot-10 senior guard Selena Buttery had a game high 8-rebounds leading both teams.
“I think our teams performance was really good in the first half of the game,” Schuetze said. “But then towards the end we started falling a little bit behind. I feel like we kind of gave up which is something we need to work on.”
The swords are now on a six game losing streak this season. Dating back to last season when the Swords played Biola University 0n Jan. 23, 2025. they have been on a total of a 14 game losing streak.
They’re still making positive steps forwards. They were able to drop to a season low in turnovers with 13. Carter has been stepping into that senior role and being more vocal on the floor as well as helping with her scoring abilities.
With finals week coming up, the swords will have the week off to reset mentally and physically. They will have time to get the entire team all on the same page working on handling other teams pressure. This also allows them time to prepare for their Southern California road trip where they will play three road games against Vanguard University, Azusa Pacific University, and Westmont College all at their home courts.
“They know they were right in that,” Brewster said. “And right now I know the league is not very happy because teams are playing us and then they realize that they aren’t just rollover wins.”