HONOLULU – Hawai'i Pacific University withstood a late charge by Notre Dame de Namur to claim a 71-64 PacWest Conference triumph on Thursday night at The Shark Tank.
 
The Sharks (5-9, 3-5) fought off the Argonauts (2-13, 1-7) down the stretch after NDNU cut a 17-point second half deficit to four with a minute to play.
 
Senior Ronald Blain of McDonough, Ga./Union Grove led the Sharks with a double-double of 18 points and 13 rebounds with five assists. Freshman Lachlan Viney of Melbourne, Australia/Mazenod came off the bench with 13 points, while junior Tavon Tarpley of McLean, Va./Langley posted 12 points.
 
NDNU got 20 points from Stephen Baity, with four rebounds and five assists. Carl Snyder produced 13 points, while Ajay Singh added 12 points and five boards. Charles Jones had seven rebounds to lead the Argos.
 
HPU shot 47 percent (27-of-58) from the field, including 8-of-22 (36 percent) from the 3-point arc. The Sharks went 9-of-11 (82 percent) from the foul line. The Argonauts hit 39 percent (26-of-67) from the floor, with 6-of-20 (30 percent) coming from the arc. NDNU made 6-of-9 (67 percent) from the charity stripe. HPU outrebounded NDNU 45-30, but the Argo turned the ball over just eight times to the Sharks 16. Giveaways.
 
The Sharks and Argos played through three ties and three lead changes in the first six minutes of the contest. HPU took the lead for good with 13:56 remaining the opening half when Tarpley got a layup after a Baity 3-pointer for the Argos. That score started a 14-3 run to put HPU up by 10 at 25-15 with 8:08 in the half.
 
After swapping scores the rest of the half, HPU took a nine-point 36-27 at the half on a layup by freshman Trey Chapman of Healdsburg, Calif./Healdsburg in the final minute.
 
A pair of Blain 3-pointers and a layup from Chapman gave HPU an eight-point run and allowed the Sharks to post a 17-point lead, their largest, with 17:57 remaining in the game.
 
Only the Argos responded with a 12-0 run of their own capped by a Lovevelle Shackleford layup to make it a 44-39 contest with 13:13 left. Another layup by Shackleford trimmed the lead to four before HPU answered with a 7-0 run to get back to an 11-point advantage after a jumper from redshirt freshman Colton Martin of Flower Mound, Texas/Flower Mound. The Sharks later would get the lead up to 12 twice after Martin layups, the last with 4:55 to go.
 
The Argos continued to chip away at the HPU lead and closed the contest to 67-63 with 1:08 to go on Singh's layup. The HPU defense held NDNU to just one more point down the stretch, while redshirt freshman Ryan Godges of Santa Barbara, Calif./San Marcos and Blain hit free throws in the final 14 seconds to clinch the win.
 
HPU faces its fifth game in 10 days on Saturday afternoon when the Sharks play host to Dominican (Calif.). Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. at The Shark Tank.