The BYU-Hawaii men's basketball team romped to a 101-57 victory over Civil Aviation University of China on November 11 in the closing round of the American Money Group Asia Pacific Basketball Classic
The BYUH men raced away to a 54-20 halftime lead and were never seriously threatened in winning their second exhibition game in as many days in the tournament. Indeed, hard play throughout every game in the Classic, which also included the New Caledonia National Team, Hawaii Pacific University and Chaminade, characterized the entire tournament and bodes well for an exciting Seasider season.
Freshman Lucas Alves led the BYUH men with 20 points on 7-11 shooting as every player in uniform scored for BYU-Hawaii. Junior Ale tallied 12 points for the Seasiders while Corey Nielson and Jermaine Odjegba added 11 each. Alves and Jeremy Brown grabbed five rebounds apiece as BYU-Hawaii out-rebounded the visitors 47-27 and Brown dished out a game-high five assists. Trenson Akana snatched four of the Seasiders' 19 steals to lead in that category and Alves and Micah Casey each blocked two shots.
Zhao Chunlei led Civil Aviation with 17 points and 11 rebounds while Tian Yupeng got five steals in the loss.
In the earlier Saturday game of the tournament, Chaminade defeated New Caledonia by a final score of 98-68, behind 21 points by Mike Green and Zack Whiting's 13 points, 12 assists, and seven rebounds. The Seasiders also defeated New Caledonia on Friday night, 103-56.
Mahalo to this year's Classic sponsor, American Money Group. The BYU-Hawaii men's basketball team will open its regular season on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. against Cal State-Stanislaus in the Cannon Activities Center. The new BYUH women's basketball team will play their home opener on Saturday, November 18, at 6 p.m. in the CAC.