Chaminade upsets Montana State-Billings, 89-76
By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer
In a battle of two injury-riddled basketball teams, Chaminade took the lead late in the first half and fended off 16th-ranked Montana State-Billings last night.
Leon Ballard scored a game-high 22 points to lead five teammates in double figures as the unranked Silverswords upset the Yellowjackets, 89-76, in the Pacific West Conference opener for both.
A crowd of 100 at McCabe Gym watched the Silverswords improve to 6-7 overall and 1-0 in the PacWest. The Yellowjackets, the defending conference co-champions, dropped to 6-3 and 0-1.
"We've had some injuries, but we're never going to use that excuse," Chaminade coach Aaron Griess said. "We're going to come out and play as hard as we can every time. Hopefully, we can give this kind of effort every single night."
The Silverswords refused to let four key injuries, including one to all-conference guard Kashif Reyes, slow them against the Yellowjackets, who were without their top two players, junior guard David Carse and senior forward Jerett Skrifvars.
Last night, Chaminade received a spark from junior swingman Donald Rogers, who started in his fourth game of the season, and scored 14 first-half points.
"With all the injuries and all the adversity we've gone through, I just tried to step up," Rogers said. "I took it upon myself to come out aggressive."
Behind the play of Rogers, the Silverswords took control in the first half. Trailing 34-27, Chaminade engineered a 12-2 run to take a 39-36 lead with 4:40 left to play. Ballard scored four points during the spurt. The Silverswords led 53-46 at halftime.
In the second half, the Yellowjackets closed to 62-55 with 15:32 left, but the Silverswords went on a 12-2 run to grab their largest lead of the game at 74-57 with 13:18 left.
"I thought Aaron's kids played very, very hard," Montana State-Billings coach Craig Carse said. "It was a hard-played game. It was a good college basketball game."
With the victory, the Silverswords improved to 25-9 at McCabe Gym under Griess, who is in his third year as head coach.
"If we can protect the home court and split on the road, we'll be OK," Rogers said. "We wanted to send a message to everyone in the league that Chaminade is for real this year and we're coming out to play."
The Yellowjackets played without leading scorer Skirfvars, who suffered a season-ending hand injury in the fifth game of the season, and Carse, who has a possible season-ending shoulder injury.
The Silverswords had four key injuries with Reyes (torn ligaments in his right ankle), reserve junior guard Jerry Wells (left knee), senior swingman Rahshaw McAfee (torn ligaments in left thumb) and junior center Ryan Bishop (broken left foot).
Montana State-Billings 46 30—76
Chaminade 53 36—89
Leading Scorers: MSBU—Dan Thompson 18, Strimlinger 11. Cham—Leon Ballard 22, Roy Stigall 17, Mike Donegan 15. Assists: MSBU—D. Thompson 6. Cham—R. Stigall 6. Rebounds: MSBU—Justin Hassell 8. Cham—Byron Sykes 7, L. Ballard 7.
• Hawai'i-Hilo 86, Drew 44: Kyle Bartholomew scored 17 points and Osadonor Esene added 13 to lead the Vulcans past Drew University of New Jersey at Hilo's Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium last night.
Hilo is 8-4, Drew 1-6.
Dave Millstein led Drew with eight points.
Hilo raced to a 49-24 halftime lead, hitting 49 percent (18-37) of its field-goal attempts.
Drew (N.J.) 24 20—44
UH-Hilo 49 37—86
Leading Scorers: DU—Dave Millstein 8, Nick Elmo 7. UHH—Kyle Bartholomew 17, Osadonor Esene 13. Assists: DU—Brad Greenman 3, D. Millstein 3. UHH—Derek Mgbeke 5, Kimo Keiter-Charles 5. Rebounds: DU—Anthony Ford 7, Germane Williams 5. UHH—Albert Keim 8, Ryan Hogue 6.
