Posted on: Saturday, January 25, 2003
Foyle lifts BYUH over HPU, 82-76
By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer
Brigham Young Hawai'i rattled in the first half, but then steadied itself in the final 20 minutes against Hawai'i Pacific last night.
Alexus Foyle scored a team-high 26 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, and Scott Salisbury added 19 points and 11 rebounds as the Seasiders held off the visiting Sea Warriors, 82-76, in a Pacific West Conference game in Lai'e.
A crowd of about 2,000 at the Cannon Activities Center watched the Seasiders stretch their conference-best home winning streak over two seasons to 13, and improve to 10-2 overall and 4-1 in conference. With the victory, the Seasiders moved into a first place tie with Chaminade and Hawai'i-Hilo. HPU fell to 12-5 and 1-4.
BYUH led by 16 points in the first half, but found itself trailing by as much as seven in the second half.
"Basketball is a game of runs," Salisbury said.
"In the first five minutes we could do no wrong. We kept our composure and executed when we needed to."
For the game, BYUH out rebounded HPU 46-25, including 19-10 on the offensive glass.
"I thought HPU showed a lot of heart coming back like they did," BYUH coach Ken Wagner said.
"A lot of teams would have folded. They kept coming back at us. I was proud our team came back."
The outcome wasn't decided until the final four minutes. Shawn Opunui's 3-pointer gave BYUH a 71-70 lead with 3:48 left. Opunui finished with 15 points.
"That was huge," Foyle said of Opunui's basket.
"It took a lot of tension off the team."
HPU closed to 77-75 on Leandro Muraoka's basket with 1:02 left. But Foyle had a thunderous dunk off a missed basket with 33 seconds left, giving BYUH a 79-75 lead.
BYUH raced to a 24-8 lead with 12:25 left in the first half.
But the Sea Warriors engineered a 29-6 run to grab a 37-30 lead with 2:43 left, and took a 39-35 lead at halftime.
Marvin Noble scored a game-high 30 points for HPU. Muraoka added 19 points and Aaron Abrams 16.
HPU's leading scorer Nic Walters scored eight points in his first game back from an injured right shoulder.
