HONOLULU — No. 8 Hawai'i Pacific University won its first PacWest Conference Men's Basketball Championship with an 88-80 win at cross-town rival Chaminade at McCabe Gym Saturday night.
 
The eighth ranked Sharks (26-2, 18-2) got the outright title when Point Loma upset California Baptist 77-71 earlier in the day. The Silverswords (17-9, 13-6) are the fourth seed in the tournament.
 
"Wow, what a great night," said HPU head coach Darrin Vorderbruegge. "This team has battled and clawed their way to a PacWest Championship. We played our hearts out tonight. Not bad for a team picked to finish seventh in the preseason poll."
 
The senior leadership of the Sharks came through again. Chauncey Orr, the 6-4 senior swingman from Bowling Green, Ohio/Bowling Green, tallied 25 points with eight rebounds and four assists, while Jordan Martin, a 5-11 senior guard from Goodyear, Ariz./Millennium, double-doubled with 21 points and 11 rebounds to go with seven assists. Junior Deven Riley, a 6-3 guard from Wildomar, Calif./Elsinore, came off the bench with 13 points,, and senior Connor Looney, the 6-2 guard from Palmer, Alaska/Palmer, popped in 11 points with two blocks and three steals.
 
Chaminade was led by Kuany Kuany with a game-high 28 points and 10 rebounds. Rohndell Goodwin posted 22 points and six boards when he fouled out of the game with 3:17 to play. Kiran Shastri added 14 points and Austin Pope 11 with six rebounds.
 
HPU shot 41 percent from the field (28-of-68), but hit 44 percent (10-of-23) from the 3-point arc. HPU also converted 22-of-26 from the free throw line (85 percent). CUH made 43 percent (29-of-68) from the floor, including 9-of-27 (33 percent) from the arc. The Swords were 13-of-17 from the stripe (77 percent).
 
HPU won the rebounding battle 43-39 and the turnover battle with 11 giveaways to CUH's 15.
 
The Sharks jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead with Martin's trey on HPU's first shot of the game, but the Swords caught up for the first of two ties at 9-all on Kuany layup with 16:11 remaining in the half.
 
HPU answered with 3-pointers from Looney and Orr to go with a Colfax Norquist layup in an 8-0 run, only to have the Swords answer with a 14-4 run that featured four straight 3-pointers. Kuany's 3-pointer with 9:54 before the half put Chaminade in front for the only time in the game at 23-21. The lead would last 42 seconds.
 
HPU got a layup from Riley off a steal Spencer Vering to tie the game, then Vering buried a right corner 3-pointer on the next possession to put the Sharks in front to stay at 26-23 with 8:48 to play in the half and was the genesis of an 16-3 run that put HPU up 11 with just under four minutes to go in the half. The Sharks built the lead to 12 before the Swords chopped it back to nine, 46-37 at halftime on Kuany's 3-pointer with three seconds left.
 
The game of runs continued in the second half, with HPU extending the lead to 12, only to have Chaminade cut it back to six and the Sharks follow with a 7-0 run to up the lead to 13. After swapping buckets, Martin gave the Sharks their largest lead of 14 at 73-59 with 8:29 to go, only to have Kuany match the triple to move it back to 11.
 
The Swords made a final push starting with 6:37 to play when Goodwin's layup keyed a 12-6 run that cut HPU's lead to five at 81-76 with 2:14 to play on Pope's layup.
 
Needing to foul to control the clock, Kuany fouled Orr, who promptly nailed both free throws to end the run. HPU went on to make three more free throws with Martin to extend the lead to 10 with 37 seconds to go. HPU allowed a pair of Sword layups in the final seconds to keep the clock running, that trimmed the lead back to six. But CUH fouled Orr again, and he buried two free throws with two seconds to play to give the Sharks their first PacWest men's basketball championship.
 
The No. 8 Sharks now have a few days to rest and prepare before heading to the mainland to start postseason play on Friday.