First place Point Loma was the only team to pick up a pair of victories last week and they remain unbeaten in PacWest play. As usual, Kaden Anderson was a key reason for that and he earned his 14th weekly award. Mike Asante of Academy of Art pulled down 20 rebounds in the Urban Knight’s effort to knock off the Sea Lions, grabbing the Defender of the Week award.
2022-23 Results/Schedule
2022-23 Standings
2022-23 Statistics
D2SIDA West Region and National Polls
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Point Loma’s Kaden Anderson, F, Sr., 6-8, 220, Enumclaw, Wash.
Point Loma’s
Kaden Anderson earns his 11th PacWest Player of the Week award, moving past Lucas Alves of BYU Hawaii (10) for the most in conference history. When you add in Anderson's three PacWest Defender of the Week awards, that gives him 14 total, the most in league history. All he did this week is put up 30 points and grab 14 rebounds in a 75-72 win over Academy of Art on Saturday. He had 21 of those points in the first half as the Sea Lions won the rematch between the two title contenders. Two days earlier, PLNU survived an upset attempt by Dominican (72-69), with the super senior putting 28 points and pulling down nine boards. For the week, the Washingtonian had 58 points (29.5 ppg), 23 rebounds (11.5) and added three blocked shots and four steals.
DEFENDER OF THE WEEK: Academy of Art’s Mike Asante, F, Sr., 6-7, 230, Toronto, Ontario
Mike Asante is named the Defender of the Week for the second time this year. The 2022 PacWest tournament MVP put in great work against the Sea Lions, grabbing a season-high 20 rebounds in the 75-72 loss, while also putting 15 points into the scorebook. He added four assists as well and never came out of the game, logging all 40 minutes. On Thursday, in a 94-63 blowout of Concordia, the Canadian just missed a double-double with 16 points and nine rebounds. On the season, the 2020 Howard College transfer is averaging 11.4 points and 7.9 rebounds a game.
SEA LIONS STAVE OFF TWO UPSET ATTEMPTS: The PacWest Team of the Week is the
POINT LOMA SEA LIONS. Point Loma’s win streak is now at 14 games, improving to 18-3 overall and 13-0 in PacWest play. The last time that they tasted defeat was on November 26 against Western Washington, a 91-89 overtime setback. That streak was in limbo this week though, as both Dominican and Academy of Art took the Sea Lions to the final possession of their games, both missing long shots at the buzzer. In the 72-69 win over the Penguins,
Luke Haupt supplemented
Kaden Anderson’s numbers (see above) with 15 points, five rebounds and four assists. In the ART U win,
Brian Gorake had 16 points and freshman
Jake Lifgren came off the bench for 12 points and five boards. Ranked No. 1 in the D2SIDA west region poll for two straight weeks, the Sea Lions were ranked No. 18 in last week’s national poll.
POINT LOMA LENGTHENS LEAD, BUT BATTLE FOR PLAYOFF SPOTS IS TIGHT: Point Loma moved to 13-0 in PacWest play, building a four-game lead over their nearest competitor. Sitting in second place is
Hawai`i Hilo (8-3), followed closely by
Azusa Pacific (8-4),
Biola (7-4) and
Academy of Art (7-5).
Dominican moved into the all-important sixth spot (6-7), edging tournament host
Chaminade (5-7). At the end of the regular season, the top six teams will fly to Honolulu for the Pacific West Conference Tournament, March 2-4.
SEA LIONS STAY IN REGIONAL TOP SPOT: In today’s D2SIDA men’s basketball west region poll, the Sea Lions retained their location in the top spot.
Point Loma, now 18-3, gather five of the six regional first place votes to stay a skip ahead of Cal State San Bernardino. Five PacWest teams overall are in the rankings, which look like this….
1) Point Loma 18-3, (2) Cal State San Bernardino 14-2, (3) Seattle Pacific 13-5, (4) Montana State Billings 14-5, (5) St. Martin’s 15-4,
(T6) Hawai`i Hilo 12-4, (T6) Azusa Pacific 13-6, (8) Academy of Art 12-7, (9) Cal State San Marcos 10-7,
(10) Biola 12-6.
PACWEST NEWS AND NOTES: Chaminade had one of the biggest wins of the week, knocking off Biola in overtime, 72-68.
Isaac Amaral-Artharee had 22 points for the Silverswords and
Braden Olson added 20 buckets and seven assists.
Daniel Esparza led the Eagles with 21 points…Ditto in the big win category for Hawai`i Hilo in their 68-59 home victory over Azusa Pacific.
Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones had 25 point and 11 rebounds for the Vulcans and
Carlos Ramsey, Jr. added 18…Hawai`i Pacific also knocked off the Cougars (69-66), paced by
Jalen Chandler’s 18 points and eight boards.
Marquis Moore had a double-double for the Sharks with 14 and 10…Biola put the clamps on the high-scoring Vulcans, 61-44 in Hilo.
Alex Wright had 17 to pace a balanced attack.
Darren Williams led Hilo with 21 points…The Cougars bounced back with a win over Chaminade (84-70) behind guard
Hayden Gray’s 22 points and eight boards…
PJ Volz had 19 points as Dominican clipped Concordia, 73-67…Holy Names had Hawai`i Hilo on the ropes but the Vulcans survived a last second shot by the Hawks to secure the 66-65 road win.
Ramsey, Jr. had 19 points for UHH.
GAME A DAY AS PACWEST PLAY CONTINUES INTO THE END OF JANUARY: There are games every day this week again, beginning with Tuesday contests. The Hawai`i teams are now in northern/central California for games, but there is also a big rivalry clash on Wednesday when
Azusa Pacific (8-4) hosts
Biola (7-4). In other top tier match-ups,
Dominican hosts
Hawai`i Hilo on Friday, and on Sunday the
Vulcans travel to
Academy of Art.