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Friday, February 23, 2001
Save for the last five minutes of the game when the outcome was basically decided, the way the Hawaii Pacific men's basketball team played last night against rival Brigham Young-Hawaii was how Sea Warriors' coach Tony Sellitto envisioned them playing all season. HPU upends BYUH
By Brandon Lee
Special to the Star-BulletinUnfortunately, it was largely a season of disappointment, though HPU did prevent a season sweep at the hands of the Seasiders with last night's 76-70 Pacific West Conference home victory before 412 fans at the Blaisdell Arena.
The game was the season finale for both teams with the Sea Warriors (11-16 overall, 6-12 PacWest) ending the year on a positive note.
However, it was the second consecutive losing season for HPU, the 1999 Pacific Division champions. The Sea Warriors had winning campaigns in each of Sellitto's first 11 seasons.
BYUH -- the defending Pacific Division champion and the preseason favorite to repeat -- finished at 14-13 and 8-10.
"I thought they would play good all year," Sellitto said. "We didn't think the personnel of the other teams were better than our personnel.
"But then we had a few breakdowns personally, individually and that didn't work out that way. But I thought this game here, right up until the last few minutes, we played well."
Junior shooting guard Nick Spajic paced HPU with a game-high 30 points, shooting 12-for-15 overall from the field. His only misses came from 3-point range, but he nailed three from beyond the arc as well.
Senior forward Kawika Smith and senior point guard Michael Paul chipped in with 14 points apiece.
Smith turned in yet another spectacular all-around performance to end his three-year career with nine rebounds, four assists and two steals to complement his scoring. Paul ran the offense for most of the night and tied his career-high with eight assists.
Sophomore center Scott Salisbury had team-highs of 12 points and seven rebounds for the Seasiders.
"I thought it was very important to get a win, especially against BYU," Spajic said.
Added team-captain Smith: "It was definitely important, especially for the underclassmen, to restore the name of HPU and get back our winning ways."
With HPU leading 34-22 at intermission, the Sea Warriors opened the second half with a 19-7 run to build their biggest lead of the night at 53-31 with 13:52 left to play. Spajic drove hard across the lane, going right and scooping the ball in to give HPU the 22-point advantage.
The lead was 18 with 5:11 remaining, when BYUH went on a 10-0 run to close the score to 70-62 with just under two minutes remaining. The Seasiders were helped by the Sea Warriors' suddenly sloppy play, as HPU committed nine of its 23 total turnovers in the final 4:20.
In the end, however, it was too little, too late for BYUH, as Lamont Young hit a meaningless 3-pointer for the Seasiders with five seconds remaining for the final outcome.
"HPU did a good job and beat us in every aspect," BYUH coach Ken Wagner said.
Besides Smith and Paul, it was the final game for HPU senior center Marcos Lagemann.
Playing in their final game for BYUH wereforwards Kahi Villa, Jason Stilson and Isaac Turley, and swingman Kerry Hendrickson.
Hawaii Pacific
BYU-Hawaii
Chaminade
U.H. Hilo