BYU-Hawaii jumps into semifinals with victory over Seattle Pacific

(BYU-Hawaii Sports Information and Western Washington Sports Information contributed to this story.)

BELLINGHAM, WA - The Brigham Young University Hawaii men’s basketball team defeated 18th-ranked Seattle Pacific 76-72 on Friday in the quarterfinals of the NCAA II West Regional Tournament.

Box Score

The Seasiders won - despite their poorest shooting night of the season - behind a pair of double-doubles from their senior big men Lucas Alves and Garrett Sandberg.

The Seasiders will face Cal State-San Bernardino in Saturday’s semifinals at 5 p.m. PST.

Alves knocked down 20 points and pulled down 12 rebounds while Sandberg came off the bench to score 11 points and grab 10 rebounds as BYU-Hawaii improved to 21-5 on the year. It marked the first win by BYU-Hawaii over the Falcons in school history.

BYU-Hawaii Head Coach Ken Wagner "Playing the first game was tough, especially being from Hawai‘i,” Ken Wagner, the Seasiders’ head coach, said in recounting his team’s journey from San Francisco last week, back to Honolulu for a game with Hawai‘i Pacific on Monday, and then hopping on another jetliner to the Great Northwest for the regional. “It was like a double-whammy with the travel and the early game. We've been to the Mainland and back to Hawai‘i and then to here (Washington) - we've traveled a lot in the last week. We need to eat and rest. We were lucky. I thought we were fortunate to win."

The Seasiders took a 35-30 halftime lead and staved off a couple of Falcon second-half rallies that tied the score. BYU-Hawaii took its largest lead of the game at 71-60 with just 1:15 to play but then missed five of six free throws sandwiched around an Alves dunk to allow Seattle Pacific to cut the lead to 74-72 with seven seconds to play.

Anthony Reilly A.J. Reilly iced the game with a pair of free throws with three seconds left to preserve the Seasiders’ 14th straight win and send them into the semifinals.

BYU-Hawaii entered the game as the nation’s best-shooting team but shot a season-low 42.6% (26 for 61) from the field. The Seasiders were just 21 for 36 (58.3%) from the free throw line.

However, BYU-Hawaii held the Falcons - who entered the contest as the nation’s third-best shooting team - to just 34.4% (21 for 61) from the floor and out-rebounded Seattle Pacific 47-41. The rebounding edge occurred despite BYU-Hawaii’s leading rebounder - Marques Whippy - being limited to just 15 minutes of play after getting into foul trouble.

"We told our team before the game we wanted to keep it in the 70s in order to have a chance to win,” Ryan Looney, the head coach of Seattle Pacific, said. “Unfortunately, we shot a poor percentage. We learned a lesson down the stretch (of the season) and it put us in a lower seed - and then we had to match-up with what I feel is the most talented team in the tournament (in BYU-Hawaii)."

Jet Chang and Rory Patterson joined Alves and Sandberg in double-figures for the Seasiders with 15 and 12 points, respectively. Chang had a key stretch of three straight baskets in the second half - two acrobatic lay-ups on coast-to-coast dashes to the rim.

"That was a good one to get out of the way,” Alves said. “We didn't play well at all. We just wanted to get out of there with a win, even if it was by half a point."

Reilly finished with nine points and was 7 for 8 from the line. Whippy grabbed seven rebounds, handed out three assists, made two blocks, and came up with a steal in his short time on the floor, while J.R. Buensuceso handed out five assists for the Seasiders.

Chris Banchero had 22 points to lead Seattle Pacific (22-6) but shot just 5 for 16 from the field. Jeff Downs had 12 points and Brandon Larrieu 10 for the Falcons. Jake Anderson had 12 rebounds in the loss. Seattle Pacific had won the first seven meetings between the two schools including a game in Seattle earlier this season.

BYU-Hawaii will play Cal State San Bernardino after the Coyotes defeated Humboldt State 75-66 also on Friday. Cal Poly Pomona, last year’s regional champion, will face host Western Washington in the other semifinal at 7 p.m.

Cal Poly Pomona defeated Pacific West Conference co-champion Dixie State 71-62, while Western Washington beat Central Washington 84-70 in the final game of the day.