Now everyone in the conference knows what Scott Salisbury and Alexus Foyle know -- never take anything for granted when two Hawaii teams hook up. Seasiders victorious
in PacWest opener
By Jerry Campany
jcampany@starbulletin.comSalisbury pulled down 17 rebounds and Foyle scored 29 points to lead Brigham Young-Hawaii over Hawaii Pacific 83-80 in the conference opener for both teams last night in Laie.
"Him and I had a little talk before the game. We knew we had to kind of put it on our shoulders because we are the ones with experience," Salisbury said. "The preseason and conference are two entirely different spectrums of basketball."
As was their first meeting of the season.
Foyle scored 20 points in the first half and the Seasiders (7-1 overall, 1-0 Pacific West Conference) ran out to a 20-point lead at intermission.
But the scrappy Sea Warriors (11-2, 0-1) cut it to 10 halfway through the third quarter. They did it by taking advantage of the killer instinct of the Seasiders' two big guns, getting transition baskets whenever Foyle and Salisbury would force up a bad shot.
The Sea Warriors continued to take advantage of Seasider mistakes to cut the margin to three points with two minutes remaining when Marvin Noble hit a 3-pointer. Noble led the Sea Warriors with 24 points, but was called for a charge on Seasider point guard Shawn Opunui in the open court with 53.6 seconds left and the margin still three points.
Opunui made four free throws in four attempts the rest of the way and the Seasiders were 6-for-7, but the Sea Warriors still refused to die. They had a chance to win until there were 2.7 seconds left. Aaron Abrams, who was fouled by Foyle beyond the arc, went to the line for three shots. He sank the first two, but missed the third. Foyle ended the game with his third rebound of the night.
It was the first time on the road for the Sea Warriors, who will embark on a trip to Montana and New Mexico with the Seasiders tomorrow. Hawaii Pacific coach Russell Dung believes that taking such a good half of basketball on the trip will help his team, and just experiencing the Cannon Center will help HPU when it returns to the North Shore in two weeks.
"I don't want to say it does, but it probably does," Dung said about going on the road for the first time. "It was their first time in this building with the home crowd. We went to work and played hard but couldn't catch up. You can't dig yourself in this big of a hole against this team. Like I said before, the road to the conference goes through BYU and every little mistake hurts."
Even the defending PacWest champion Seasiders learned a little something about the difference between preseason and conference play.
"I thought we came to play in the first half, but I was a little disappointed in the second half," BYUH coach Ken Wagner said. "But you have to give them credit, they came to play when the conference started."
HPU Sports
