Sharks spoil Swords’ PacWest dreams with spectacular Senior Night

HONOLULU – One time for the seniors. 

The Hawaii Pacific University men’s basketball team celebrated six seniors in style on Thursday night, spoiling island rival Chaminade’s PacWest tournament dreams with a 95-76 victory inside the Shark Tank. Joshua West led the way in a balanced scoring effort by HPU, pouring in 16 points to go along with seven rebounds as the Sharks saw all five starters finish in double figures. 

HPU (14-14, 9-10 PacWest) recognized a group mixed with varying journeys to the islands in Jonas Visser, Pavle Kuzmanovic, Charlie Weber, Tucker Pellicci, Kordel Ng and Jakob Kimura in a large ceremony that followed the women’s game, a 74-62 victory for the Sharks, and concluded before warmups of the men’s contest. Visser, who had started all 27 games leading into Senior Night, went to the coaching staff ahead of Thursday’s contest and offered up his starting role in favor of the 5th-year veteran Pellicci, who hadn’t started a game for the Sharks since January of 2022. 

The coaching staff granted the captain’s request to start Pellicci, along with fellow seniors Charlie Weber, Kordel Ng and Jakob Kimura and junior Joshua West rounding out the first lineup for the Sharks. Despite different roles to begin the night, each player responded with strong scoring efforts as the quintet combined for 63 of the 95 points by HPU. 

From left to right: Jakob Kimura, Pavle Kuzmanovic, Charlie Weber, Jonas Visser, Tucker Pellicci and Kordel Ng pose together on Senior Night. | Photo Credit: Michael Lasquero, HSRN

Weber turned in 15 points on an efficient 6-of-10 shooting performance, knocking down three of HPU’s 13 total 3-pointers in the season-high scoring effort. Pellicci recorded his first career double-double, scoring 10 points while pulling down 11 rebounds and blocking his team-leading 21st shot of the season. 

Kimura drilled a season-high four 3-pointers and had 12 points for the Sharks, feeling some of the leftover mana from his alma mater Punahou’s recent state championship run. Fellow local boy Kordel Ng, who once played for the now-closed St. Francis High School team inside the Shark Tank, closed out his tenure in the cozy gym with 10 points and a season-best six assists. 

Chaminade (16-11, 10-10 PacWest) looked to spoil the celebration themselves on a night with plenty to gain and even more to lose for the Silverswords, blitzing HPU out of the gate with six 3-point makes in the opening six minutes of action. After falling down by as many as 17, back-to-back buckets from Jonas Visser helped calm the Sharks as they started to work their way closer with some of their own sweet 3-point shooting. 

“Credit to Chaminade,” Nakanishi said of the Sharks’ slow start. “They have really good players and really good shot makers and boy – did they make shots in that first segment.”

Kimura’s first 3-pointer of the game brought HPU within two before Ng’s lone triple of the night gave the Sharks their first lead of the night with under five minutes to play in the first half, 38-37. Another three from Kimura capped off an 11-0 run by HPU, forcing Chaminade to call for timeout as the packed-out Shark Tank tested how loud it could get. 

The Swords recovered momentarily, keeping within a few points before Visser and Weber helped Hawaii Pacific finish the half in a hurry and head into the locker room leading, 49-43. The Sharks connected on 50% of their looks from behind the arc across the opening 20 minutes, draining eight 3-pointers to help offset the early barrage from the Swords. 

HPU started the second half far stronger offensively, holding off the Chaminade push with another Kimura three, an Ng and-one and a seven-point spurt from Weber in the first six minutes out of the break to help extend the advantage for the Sharks into double figures for the first time all night. 

The Silverswords wouldn’t go down quietly, fighting back to pull within six points with six and a half minutes left in regulation after consecutive buckets from the King brothers, but another Weber 3-pointer and a massive two-handed putback dunk by Pellicci stopped the Swords’ momentum cold. HPU’s defense locked in over the final few minutes, only allowing two points in the last 4:08 of play to the visitors.  

Tucker Pellicci provides the exclamation point on Senior Night with a putback slam dunk. | Photo Credit: Michael Lasquero, HSRN

Kent King led the way in a losing effort for the Silverswords, racking up a game-high 17 points while RJ Banks added 13 points. Kameron Ng, the older brother of HPU’s Kordel, finished the night with 10 points, four boards and three assists in his final collegiate game. 

Jonas Visser put up eight points and 11 rebounds in just 15 minutes off the bench while Pavle Kuzmanovic put up eight points with a pair of 3-pointers himself. All 10 HPU players who saw time ended up scoring and helped the Sharks dominate on the glass, doubling up the Swords in rebounds, 56-28. 

“I’m so proud and happy for these guys, especially those six seniors that really gave me everything and gave their teammates everything all year long,” Nakanishi said after the game. “[The team] has done everything we’ve asked. Yeah, we fell short for the season as far as getting into the playoffs but tonight was really a glimpse of some of the basketball potential that we really had but didn’t quite produce all year.” 

HPU closes out its season on Saturday, visiting UH-Hilo on the Big Island with eyes on a season sweep of the PacWest Tournament-bound Vulcans. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. HT and can be seen on the PacWest Network with purchase of access.