Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Monday, March 6, 2000

Seasiders earn
fifth seed in NCAA
Division II Regional play

By Tim Booth
Special to the Star-Bulletin

ELLENSBURG, Wash. -- Traveling more than 9,000 miles and playing four hard-fought games in a 10-day span finally caught up with the BYU-Hawaii men's basketball team.

Emotionally and physically fatigued from a 95-88 win over host Central Washington on Friday night, the Seasiders were no match for a fresher, more rested Seattle Pacific squad, losing 113-59 in the PacWest championship game Saturday night.

Now it's time for the Seasiders to catch up on their rest for a few days. BYUH only has to travel to Seattle, where the Seasiders have been seeded fifth in the NCAA Division II Tournament.

"We can't travel back to the island and then back three week's in a row," said BYUH coach Ken Wagner.

The Seasiders will take on the fourth-seeded and 1998 national champion UC Davis Aggies Thursday night (5:30 HST).

The tournament runs through Saturday at Seattle Pacific's Royal Brougham Pavilion.

Two other PacWest schools are also in the regional: No. 1 seed Seattle Pacific and No. 2 seeded Central Washington. Both SPU and Central have first-round byes.

Central will play the winner of the Cal State San Bernardino-Cal State Los Angeles game.

Should BYUH win Thursday, the Seasiders would have to face Seattle Pacific again. It's not a pleasant prospect.

"That was probably our worst loss ever," Wagner said. "We got behind early and got tired."

Tournament MVP Donte Quinine followed up a 30-point performance Friday night by scoring 16 against the Seasiders. The Falcons were led by the 31 points of Drake Hudgins, who hit on 9 of 13 3-point shots.

David Evans was the only Seasider to score in double figures with 21 points.

He was named to the all-tournament team along with SPU's Brannon Stone and Hudgins, Central Washington's Carson Payne and Western Washington's Mike Palm.

SPU head coach Ken Bone was pleased with his team's effort against the Seasiders, but was fearful of what the blowout could do to his team's mind-set.

"Four of the last five years we've reached the regional championship game on someone else's home court and lost," Bone said. "Hopefully our home court will help."

---

http://www.byuh.edu/