BYUH rolls in PacWest opener
By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Brigham Young-Hawai'i men's basketball team and its fans tasted sweet victory in a 115-62 thrashing of Western New Mexico last night in the Pacific West Conference opener for both teams.
Jake Chrisman scored a game-high 27 points and Shawn Opunui added 20 as the Seasiders gave their fans a special treat following the victory at the Cannon Activities Center.
As part of a promotion, 460 fans were given free ice cream because the Seasiders reached the 100-point plateau.
"I think the fans definitely deserve it," said Opunui, a sophomore guard. "They're out here every game supporting us. But every ice cream game we get, (the players) never get any ice cream. So where's our ice cream?"
The defending PacWest champion Seasiders won their 10th straight and improved to 11-2. The Mustangs dropped their second consecutive game and fell to 3-8. The teams play again tomorrow at the Cannon Activities Center.
"It's a great start," BYUH coach Ken Wagner said. "We felt it was important to start out well at home and get a good win."
BYUH has never lost to Western New Mexico, winning all 11 games, including three last season.
Jason Jackson led Western New Mexico with 20 points and made 6 of 8 shots from behind the 3-point line.
Chrisman, a junior post player, scored 23 points and the BYUH defense held Western New Mexico's leading scorer Matt Enriquez to five points in the first half. Enriquez finished with nine points after coming into the game averaging 18.1 points per game.
Midway through the first half, BYUH engineered a 13-0 run to take a commanding 32-16 lead. Chrisman had seven points during the surge.
"I've known Jake ever since I've been 12 years old," said Opunui, who like Chrisman, is a transfer from BYU-Provo. "For me, nothing really surprises me. He's a solid contributor. He can pour in anywhere from 20 to 30 points a game and he's big inside on the boards. But more importantly he's a team player."
The Seasiders closed out the first half with successive 3-pointers by Michael Stowell and Opunui. BYUH led 55-34 at halftime.
Opunui opened the second half by hitting five 3-pointers as the Seasiders took a 76-45 lead with 13:28 left to play. Opunui finished 6 of 10 from 3-point territory.
"I felt at halftime, Shawn was passing up some looks," Wagner said. "I said, 'Hey, when you're open shoot.' He's been shooting so well recently and I think he showed that in the second half."
For the game, the Seasiders shot 62 percent (41 of 66) and held the Mustangs to 41 percent (22 of 54).
• Hawai'i Pacific 107, Montana State-Billings 92: Aaron Abrams scored 34 points, hitting 7 of 11 from 3-point range, to lead five Sea Warriors in double figures at Blaisdell Arena.
HPU (4-8, 0-1 PacWest) was 19 of 27 from 3-point range and out-rebounded the Yellowjackets 38-28.
HPU's Marvin Noble added 22 points, Dante Sykes had 19, Albert Tecul 16 and Drazen Minic 10.
Trae Fortier scored 37 to lead Billings (6-3, 0-1).
Reach Brandon Masuoka at bmasuoka@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2458.
