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Season
| March 14, 2008 Men Pull-Off Upset Win over Cal State San Bernardino
Anchorage, AK– Big men Lucas Alves and Jermaine Odjegba scored 16 points apiece as the 7th-seeded Brigham Young-Hawaii Men's Basketball team held off a late rally by second-seeded Cal State San Bernardino to win 67-63 in the first round of the NCAA Division II West Region Championships. The Seasiders entered the game as underdogs hoping to avenge a first round tournament loss to CSUSB last year, and managed to pull-off the upset beating the number 14 ranked team in the nation to advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Alves double-double of 16 points and ten boards led the Seasiders with Jermaine Odjegba and Paul Peterson also coming up big with 16 and 12 points respectively to contribute to the win. The Seasiders (19-7) will now face the Pacific West Conference Champs and rival Chaminade University in Saturday’s 3 p.m. semifinal. CSUSB's Lance Ortiz hit a three-pointer to put the Coyotes up 55-53 with 4:15 remaining, and center Michael Earl added a free throw 30 seconds later to put the California Collegiate Athletic Association co-champs up by three. But the Seasiders were resilient in rallying and got a rebound put-back from Odjegba and a fast-break lay-in from Jeremy Brown to start an 8-0 run and put the Seasiders ahead for good. Ortiz’s trey with 52 seconds left made it 63-62, however that was as close as the Coyotes would get. BYUH sealed the game from the free throw line as point guard Corey Nielson sank a pair with 11 seconds left to account for the final margin. The loss for the Coyotes who were the West Region Champs last year, concludes their season with a 22-8 overall record. The Seasiders, now face a tough challenge in taking on their conference nemesis 25th-ranked Chaminade who went 3-0 against BYU Hawaii in the regular season, with all three games coming down to the wire. Tomorrow's 3 pm match-up should be another thriller to watch. |
