Elmasri powers Chaminade over HPU in close game, 73-69

Visiting Hawai’i Pacific started off slow before putting together a furious comeback attempt late against host Chaminade.

But Sameera Elmasri had other plans.

The senior forward scored a career-high 27 points and knocked down 10 of 11 free throw attempts to help the Silverswords hold off the Sharks, 73-69, Saturday afternoon before a crowd of 124 in a PacWest Conference matchup at McCabe Gymnasium.

Elmasri did work in all four quarters to help the Silverswords improve to 3-5 overall and 2-0 in PacWest play.

She started things off with an assist to Maddy Weaver for Chaminade’s first basket and then later picked up a steal that led to a Julien Parado layup for a 4-0 lead. Elmasri also hit on a jumper and pair of free throws late in the opening quarter helped the Silverswords take a 24-14 lead after the first 10 minutes of play.

Her second quarter was a quiet one, but a jumper in the paint gave Chaminade a 38-21 lead, its largest of the game at that point, at the 4:08 mark of the period.

The third quarter was when Elmasri really started to get cooking.

On the first three Silverswords’ possession of the second half, Elmasri hit a 3-point shot and back-to-back free throws before scoring on a fast break layup to make it a 49-30 game.

The Sharks (3-3, 1-1) trimmed the deficit to 11 midway through the third quarter, which prompted Elmasri to knock down two straight shot to push the lead back to 53-38.

HPU did not go quietly however as the visitors cut the deficit down to 10 heading into the fourth quarter.

By pushing the pace, the Sharks clawed their way back into the contest and even took the lead on an Ella Berge layup to go up 69-68, with 2:22 remaining in regulation.

But HPU could not get anything going the rest of the way as Elmasri converted on her final four free throw attempts for the final point total.

Dezaray Carter scored 12 points and Morgan Escobedo had nine to round out the top scorers for Chaminade, who saw nine different players register points.

Erika Glenn led the Sharks off the bench with 17 points in 16 minutes before having to leave the game with an apparent knee injury.