Honolulu, HI- The season has concluded. The Swords, who sported their youngest roster in Coach Mahar’s five year tenure at the helm, finished the season winning three of their last four, all on the road as Chaminade concluded the season at 10-15. Four of those losses came to NCAA Division I programs.
It was an unfamiliar year for the Swords, as Chaminade had never finished lower than third in the Pac West Conference prior to this year’s tie for fifth place. The Pac West currently has nine schools. Chaminade won the conference in 2006 and 2008, while finishing 3rd in 2007 and in a tie for 3rd in 2009.
Coach Mahar was happy with this year’s final road trip, especially the season-ending win at Hilo. “It was a very positive way to end the season. Winning in Hilo is never easy and it was nice to win a close one on the road.” The Swords lost to Dominican (CA), but defeated Academy of Art, Notre Dame de Namur and UH-Hilo within the past ten days.
The young Swords were competitive throughout the season, starting by nearly beating Division I UH-Manoa (leading for nearly the first 36 minutes of the contest), defeating BYU-Hawaii (Pac West conference co-champion) and giving veteran Dixie State and HPU teams all they could handle.
The Swords were led by two all-conference candidate. One of those candidates is junior point guard Steven Bennett, who averaged 17 points per contest, to go along with 5 assists and 2.7 rebounds per contest. The other is sophomore forward Matt Cousins. Cousins averaged 12 points per contest, to go along with 6.5 rebounds. The sophomore got better as the year went on, averaging 13.9 points and 7 rebounds in Pac West conference play.
Coach Mahar is no stranger to all-conference players as the head coach has had sixteen in his five year tenure. This list includes two Pac West Players of the Year, eight Pac West First Team selections, three All West Region selections and two All-Americans.
Bennett and Cousins were certainly not the only Swords to contribute to this year’s cause as statistical leaders. Two Sword juniors Chandler Pearson (9 ppg and 7.7 rpg-team leader) and Shane Hanson (10.9 ppg, 5.6 rpg) were also key contributors. Hanson led the team in threes (61) and percentage (36%).
Freshman Waly Coulibaly and Dominique Cooks had solid rookie campaigns for Chaminade. Both started double-digit games as first year players for CUH.
The Swords only lose one player to graduation, graduate student Zach Johnson.