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February 23, 2008

Seasiders Lose on Buzzer-beater

Corey Nielson (shown in earlier action) handed out seven assists on senior night and will finish his career with the third-best assist per game average and steals per game average in school history

Laie, HI—The Brigham Young University Hawaii men’s basketball team suffered a last-second, 67-65, defeat to conference champion Chaminade tonight on Marko Kolaric’s putback at the buzzer. The Seasiders and Silverswords hooked up in what was a tight battle throughout with nine lead changes and four ties leading up to the tense finale that gave Chaminade the conference title.

BYU–Hawaii led by as many as nine points in the second half after trailing by one, 36-35 at the break. But Chaminade slowly cut into the lead until the Seasiders had just a one-point margin at 62-61 with 4:39 to play but a Corey Nielson three-pointer put BYU–Hawaii ahead 65-61 at the 3:39 mark. However, that was the last bucket of the game by the Seasiders as Chaminade got a bucket from Rodrick Johnson at the three-minute mark and another from Stewart Kussler to tie the game with just over a minute left to set the stage for Kolaric’s putback of Hayden Heiber’s runner in the lane.

Sophomore Lucas Alves went 9-12 scored 20 points for the Seasiders and also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds, which was nearly half of the Seasiders’ 21 boards in the game. Jermaine Odjegba scored 11 points and Nate Sims added ten off the bench for BYU–Hawaii. Nielson handed out seven assists to go with his seven points and four rebounds while Paul Peterson scored seven points and had four assists.

Kussler and Kolaric each scored 18 points to lead Chaminade, now 19-6 overall and 14-2 in the PacWest. Kussler had 11 rebounds and Kolaric 10 as Chaminade pulled down 42 rebounds in the game. Johnson scored 14 points and Heiber had nine assists for the Silverswords.

BYU–Hawaii, now 16-7 overall and 11-5 in the conference, honored five players on “senior night” following the game. Given a rousing sendoff following their final home game in Laie were Peterson, Nielson, Micah Casey, Jeremy Brown, and Josh Brown.

BYU–Hawaii will face UH-Hilo on both February 29th and March 1st in Hilo at 7:30 pm HST to close out the season.

Box Score