Fiji's own Marques Whippy guides BYU Seasiders to victory in Haiwaii.

—Brigham Young University Hawaii’s Lucas Alves overcame a sluggish start to score 33 points to lead the fourth-ranked Seasiders men’s basketball team to a 100-79 win tonight over Dixie State in a battle for the top spot in the Pacific West Conference. The Seasiders and Red Storm both came into the game with identical 5-0 records in conference play but the Seasiders took sole possession of first place at 6-0 with the win. BYU–Hawaii is now 15-1 overall for the season. Alves missed four of his first six shots and BYU–Hawaii Head Coach Ken Wagner replaced him in the lineup with 12:01 to play in the first half and the Seasiders trailing by five points, 16-11. But the deep and talented Seasider bench, led by Marques Whippy and Jet Chang, brought the Seasiders within two at 22-20 over the next four minutes. Alves returned and scored eight points over the final eight minutes of the half to spark the Seasiders to a 39-30 halftime lead. The Seasiders went right to Alves for a monster dunk to open the second half and the junior went on to score 20 points in the half as the Seasiders fought off several runs by the Red Storm and eventually pulled away for the win. Five other Seasiders joined Alves in double figures for the game, with Chang netting 17, Whippy and Trenson Akana 11 apiece, and J.R. Buensuceso and Nate Sims each adding ten points. Whippy and Sims led BYU–Hawaii to a 42-33 rebound advantage by snaring nine and eight respectively and Buensuceso handed out eight assists. BYU–Hawaii shot just 38.9 percent from the field in the first half but came back in the second half with 55.6 percent to finish at 47.2 percent for the game. Tom Whitehead scored 16 points off the bench to lead Dixie State, now 11-8 for the season and 5-1 in the conference. Ryan Sanchez and Dalton Groskreutz each added 13 for the Red Storm. BYU–Hawaii will face Grand Canyon in a PacWest Conference game in Laie on Thursday at 7:30 pm.


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