Seasiders Fall to 18th-Ranked Seattle Pacific

Seattle, WA—The top-ranked Brigham Young University Hawaii men’s basketball team lost to 18th-ranked Seattle Pacific 78-72 tonight in the final game of the Seattle Pacific Tournament.  The Seasiders fell behind 44-31 at the half but rallied to tie the game three times in the second half but could not take the lead and fell to 4-1 for the season.

The last tie of the game came at 71-71 with just 2:57 to play, but the Falcons scored seven of the final eight points of the game to come away with the win.  The loss will almost surely drop the Seasiders from the top spot in the rankings that will come out next week.  BYU–Hawaii has played all five games without last season’s NCAA II Player of the Year Lucas Alves who is recovering from an injury and expects to be able to play in January.

J.R. Buensuceso scored 20 points, dished out six assists, grabbed four rebounds, and made five steals to lead the Seasider effort in tonight’s game.  Jet Chang, who was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament and was the only Seasider on the All-Tournament team, scored 17 points and had five steals.  Garrett Sandberg came off the bench to get ten points and five rebounds and Cory Chase added eight points for the Seasiders.  Marques Whippy, who was troubled by foul problems and only played 19 minutes, scored seven points and grabbed five rebounds before fouling out late in the game.

Chris Banchero scored 20 points to lead Seattle Pacific, now 6-0 for the year.  Rafael Moreira had 12 points for the Falcons.

The Seasiders will next face Hawaii Pacific as part of the Hawaii Challenge hosted by Chaminade in Honolulu on Friday at 5:00 pm HST.

Box Score