Foyle leads BYU-Hawai'i over Chaminade in PacWest, 94-71

By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer

Chaminade's Leon Ballard has his shot blocked by Brigham Young-Hawai'i's Alexus Foyle in the first half of last night's Pacific West Conference game at McCabe Gym. BYUH beat Chaminade, 94-71. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

Alexus Foyle scored a game-high 29 points to lead four teammates in double figures as the Seasiders routed the Silverswords, 94-71, in a Pacific West Conference game at McCabe Gym.

A crowd of about 900 watched the first-place Seasiders improve to 12-2 overall and 6-1 in the PacWest. The third-place Silverswords dropped to 9-10 and 4-3.

"We're just starting to play well together and people are starting to know their roles," BYUH coach Ken Wagner said. "I felt our guys, at crucial times, hit the right shots and made the right passes. The nice thing is, I think we're going to get better."

The taller Seasiders held the Silverswords to 36 percent shooting (23 of 64), and limited the PacWest's No. 2 scorer, Leon Ballard, to five points on 1-of-11 shooting. Coming into the game, Ballard was averaging 18.1 points per game.

"To be able to hold (Ballard) to that is just a miracle," BYUH forward Scott Salisbury said. "He is a great player."

BYUH dominated inside behind its front line of 6-foot-11 center Pablo Broering, 6-foot-8 forward Salisbury and 6-foot-6 forward Foyle, the top scorer in NCAA Division II at 26.9 points a game. The three combined to score 61 of BYUH's 94 points.

"We knew Chaminade was going to be up for us," Salisbury said. "Our strength is to power it inside."

The Seasiders finished with 11 blocks and held a 46-33 rebounding advantage . They also shot 57 percent (35 of 62) from the field and had 14 steals. Chaminade didn't help its cause by shooting 56 percent (20 of 36) from the free-throw line.

"We knew we were going to have trouble inside against them," Chaminade head coach Aaron Griess said. "That's a good basketball team. When they're playing well, they're hard to beat."

BYUH sprinted to a 15-10 lead behind Foyle, who had his way with Chaminade's zone defense, connecting on his first four shots.

Chaminade closed to within one point twice, at 17-16 and then at 23-22 on Byron Sykes' layup with 8:47 left.

In the next four minutes, BYUH went on a 7-0 run for a 30-22 lead before Chaminade's Donald Rogers ended his team's scoring drought with a free throw.

BYUH grabbed its biggest lead of the first half at 38-28 with 17 seconds remaining, and went into halftime with a 38-30 lead.

"Chaminade played some good defense in the first half," said Foyle, who scored 13 first-half points. "I missed a lot of shots that I would have normally made."

Chaminade opened the second half with a full-court press, but couldn't overtake BYUH.

The Seasiders padded their lead to 72-52 on Foyle's turnaround jumper with 7:52 left, and then went up 77-54 on a 3-point basket and short jumper by Shawn Opunui with 4:48 remaining.

The Seasiders took their biggest lead of the game at 92-66 on reserve guard Matt Winans' basket with 58 seconds remaining.

For BYUH, Salisbury scored 21 points followed by Opunui with 18 and Broering with 11. For Chaminade, Jaborri Thomas scored a team-high 17 points, followed by Roy Stigall III with 15 and Mike Donegan with 11.

BYU-Hawai'i (12-2, 6-1) 38 56—94
Chaminade (9-10, 4-3) 30 41—71

Leading Scorers—BYUH: Alexus Foyle 29; Scott Salisbury 21; Shawn Opunui 18. Cham: Jaborri Thomas 17; Roy Stigall 15. Rebounds—BYUH: S. Salisbury 13. Cham: Jason Walters 7; Leon Ballard 6. Assists—BYUH: Beau Nobmann 8. Cham: Byron Sykes 7.