Honolulu, HI – Vince Lombardi once said, “I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious” Despite losing by 50 points tonight; The Lady Swords wouldn’t allow themselves to believe they had been defeated, they fought hard until the bitter end.
It was not until 16:40 that CUH scored their first points of the game; they trailed at that point 9 to 0 and thanks to Samantha Saito’s two free throw makes, the score was 9-2. Samantha Saito shot well from the charity line on the night; she was 10 for 12.
The Antelopes never trailed in the game and in fact led by 22 heading into the locker room at halftime, the score was 47 to 25. Poor shooting all night was one of the main reasons why the Lady Swords lost this game. GCU shot 59% from the floor while CUH shot just 26%.
The Lady Swords were out rebounded 45 to 37. Chaminade played the entire game with a 3 guard set and will continue to do so as Kayci Wil is out for the remainder of the season due to injury.
Samantha Saito had 15 points for CUH; Kellene Costello added 8 points and 6 boards for Chaminade. While freshman guard, Jamie Higa continued her impressive freshman campaign with 9 points and 3 rebounds.
Vince Lombardi also said, “It’s not weather you get knocked down, it’s weather or not you get up.”
The Lady Swords have a chance to do just that, when they take on Hawaii Pacific University one week from tonight, February 25th, 2010. This game is unique in that we bid Aloha to seniors, Samantha Saito and Lynnette Dalle. Samantha Saito is a 4 year starter and the first women in the history of the program to score 1000 career points.
With the loss CUH falls to 1-18 overall and 0-11 in the PacWest, while Grand Canyon improves their record to 16-7 overall and 10-2 in the PacWest.