St. George, UT--The third-ranked Brigham Young University Hawaii men’s basketball team clinched the Pacific West Conference championship Friday night with a 92-77 victory over Dixie State College on the road. The Seasiders never trailed against the Red Storm in improving to 20-1 for the season and 10-0 in the PacWest while running their school-record winning streak to 17 games.
BYU-Hawaii scored the first seven points of the game, but Dixie State battled back to forge the only tie of the game at 12-12 six-and-a-half minutes into the game. But the Seasiders’ Nate Sims scored an old-fashioned three-point play and A.J. Reilly followed with a three-pointer and the Seasiders had the lead for good. BYU-Hawaii led 41-34 at halftime and extended the lead to permanent double-digits midway through the second half.
Junior point guard J.R. Buensuceso shot a perfect 5-5 from long range and scored 25 points to lead the BYU-Hawaii attack on a night when leading scorer Lucas Alves was hampered by foul trouble and scored just seven points in 23 minutes. Sims also spent much of the game on the bench with foul trouble, playing just 18 minutes, but the rest of the BYU-Hawaii lineup made up the difference. Jet Chang came off the bench to score 17 points and Trenson Akana tallied 11 for the Seasiders. Reilly chipped in nine off the bench and Sims finished with seven points. Marques Whippy added six points and Jermaine Odjegba and Garrett Sandberg each added five.
Whippy led the way on the boards for BYU-Hawaii with eight rebounds while Sims grabbed seven and Alves five. Buensuceso dished out five assists and came up with four steals to add to his stellar night while Whippy added four steals and three assists. Chang, Akana, and Sims each tallied three assists and Odjegba blocked a pair of shots in the win.
Nick Howard had 13 points, Ryan Sanchez 12, and Andy Palmer ten for the Red Storm, now 12-11 for the season and 6-4 in the conference.
Winning the conference championship assures BYU-Hawaii of a spot in the NCAA II West Regional Tournament in March. The Seasiders are currently ranked number one in the West Region and will host the tournament if they are able to hold the top spot at the end of the season.
BYU-Hawaii will conclude the road trip on Monday against Grand Canyon in Phoenix, Arizona. The Pacific West Conference game is scheduled to start at 7:30 pm Arizona time.
--Photo by Ian Nitta