Friday, February 26, 1999
Parker carries Sea Warriors
By Jerry Campany
Special to the Star-BulletinHawaii Pacific's Robert Parker showed his affection for the Chaminade faithful with a dagger in the heart.
Parker scored 26 points and hit four crucial free throws in the face of a hostile Chaminade crowd to eliminate the Silverswords and lead his Sea Warriors a step closer to a conference championship with a 68-62 come-from-behind win in the first round of the Pac West tournament last night.
Parker and the crowd traded barbs all night long, but the ones he threw into the basket hurt Chaminade's boosters the most. But he didn't do it out of any disrespect.
"I like the crowd as much as it dislikes me," Parker said. "They can say all the bad things they want, but they can't keep me from getting a ring, nobody can."
Chaminade almost did. The Silverswords opened up a 10-point halftime lead, 33-23, over the stunned Sea Warriors, but Shannon Lee led them back. Lee hit three successive layups in traffic to set up Parker's theatric foul shots with 4.5 seconds left and HPU clinging to a 64-62 lead.
Parker challenged the loud Chaminade crowd to become louder before he toed the line and extended the lead to three. Parker stepped back from the line, gave Chaminade forward Stanley Martin a pat and a grin, and nodded his head as he tossed up the second. As the ball cleared the cylinder, Parker turned to the crowd and shouted "This is my gym" three times while pumping his fist at the frustrated onlookers. Two free throws later, Chaminade's season was over.
Brigham Young-Hawaii 71, Alaska-Anchorage 57: The Seasiders slowed the pace after a frantic first half and trusted center Pa'ulasi Matavao to lead them to an upset win.
Alaska-Anchorage closed to within three points with 1:22 left on two Scott Larabee free throws, and then the Wolves put their fate in conference all-star Jim Hajdukovich's hands.
Hajdukovich put himself second on the school's career scoring list earlier in the game, but missed three late shots that were gobbled up by an inspired Matavao under the glass.
Matavao grabbed three defensive rebounds and hit hit four of seven foul shots in the final minute to put away the Seawolves.
"Coach told me during the final timeout to step up because I am a senior," Matavao said.
Point guard Derrick Elliott ran the show for Central Washington, scoring 22 points and directing his troops through a lackluster first half in time to end Humboldt's season.
Division II--Pac West
BYUH: Matavao 6-10 7-10 19, Smith 4-12 6-7 15, Evans 6-15 9-9 22, Fripp 0-1 0-0 0, Joyce 4-8 3-4 11, Villa 0-1 0-0 0, Gornichec 0-2 0-1 0, Bullock 1-1 0-0 2, Isom 0-1 0-0 0, Barton 1-4 0-1 2. Totals 22-55 25-32 71.
Alaska-Anchorage: Pilgreen 3-10 2-4 10, Lewis 3-3 1-2 7, Hamey 5-14 2-2 13, Larrabee 2-8 4-5 8, Hajdukovich 3-17 3-5 10, Madison 2-4 4-6 8, Gunkel 0-0 0-0 0, O'Shea 0-0 0-0 0, Using 0-1 1-2 1. Totals 18-57 17-26 57.
Halftime--BYUH 25, Alaska-Anchorage 19. Fouled out--Using. Total fouls--BYUH 18, Alaska-Anchorage 21.
Chaminade: Berkovitch 3-9 0-0 8, Martin 3-9 0-0 6, Tracy 4-8 3-5 11, Murphy 7-18 2-4 16, Weir 1-8 2-4 4, Feeney 1-2 4-4 7, Graham 0-2 0-0 0, Marso 0-1 0-0 0, Morgan 0-0 0-0 0, Krafels 3-7 3-6 10. Totals 22-64 14-23 62.
Hawaii Pacific: Nolan 2-5 3-4 7, Kato 1-5 0-0 2, Flowers 5-14 6-6 17, Lee 6-14 3-4 15, Parker 9-19 4-4 26, Smith 0-2 0-0 0, Lewis 0-0 0-0 0, Grissom 0-0 0-0 0, Miller 0-1 0-2 0, Ray 0-0 0-0 0, Allen 0-1 0-0 0, Newburn 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 23-61 17-22 68.
Halftime--Chaminade 33, Hawaii Pacific 23. Total fouls--Chaminade 18, Hawaii Pacific 19.
Pacific West Championship
BYU-Hawaii 71, Alaska-Anchorage 57
Cent. Washington 84, Humboldt St. 73
Hawaii Pacific 68, Chaminade 62
Seattle Pacific 89, St. Martin's 82
