With half of its conference schedule in the books, the Chaminade men's basketball team is right on track for its second PacWest crown in three seasons.

The Silverswords (14-4) are riding a 10-game win streak and are 9-0 in the PacWest with nine games left in the regular season.

Chaminade's closest competitors are always-formidable BYUH (10-5 overall, 5-3 PacWest) and Hawai'i-Hilo (5-4, 9-7).

While the Silverswords haven't necessarily been dominant during their streak, they have proved adept at winning by any means necessary — as they proved in a pair of games last week.

Trailing Grand Canyon by 10 points with seven minutes to go, the Silverswords rallied to tie the game, 73-73, with 20 seconds remaining.

On the ensuing Grand Canyon possession, Hayden Heiber stole the ball to give Chaminade a shot at a win in regulation. With just 1.4 seconds left, Stewart Kussler launched a contested 3-pointer from the corner to win the game.

The Silverswords prevailed despite a sizzling shooting performance by Grand Canyon (53 percent from the field and 69 percent from beyond the arc).

The two teams tangled again the following night with similar results.

Trailing Grand Canyon for most of the second half, Chaminade turned it on down the stretch, taking a 61-60 lead off a Marko Kolaric jumper and sealing the 66-63 victory with a pair of free throws by Rodrick Johnson with 2.4 seconds left.

While the Chaminade roster is a bit short with just nine players eligible to play, the team is long on experience with six seniors and three juniors.

The Silverswords are anchored by senior point guard Heiber, who averaged 8.5 points, 10.5 assists and 3.5 steals last week while maintaining a solid 3.5 assist-to-turnover ratio. Chaminade also has ample firepower in senior forwards Kolaric and Kussler, sweet-shooting senior guard Mike Green, and junior forward Johnson.

NAGAMINE PLAYS IT C.O.Y.

Incoming Hawai'i Pacific women's soccer coach Michele Nagamine will need to clear space on her C.V. for one last high school accolade.

Nagamine, the Hawai'i High School Girls Soccer coach of the year the past two seasons, was named the 2007 Parochial Division high school coach of the year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

Nagamine led Kamehameha to an 11-0-2 season and its second consecutive state championship.

The Sea Warriors will formally introduce Nagamine as their head coach next month.

THERE'S ALWAYS SUNDAY

A rough season for Hawai'i PacWest women's hoops teams got even worse Saturday as HPU, UH-Hilo and Chaminade lost to their Mainland counterparts by a combined 85 points.

UH-Hilo, which led the conference with a 5-0 record just a week ago, fell to Notre Dame de Namur, 69-56, for its fourth straight conference loss.

Dixie State beat HPU, 81-50, to improve to 10-7 on the season, 6-2 in conference play.

But it was Chaminade (0-16, 0-9) that suffered most with its second rout at the hands of new conference leader Grand Canyon (13-9, 9-2). On Friday, Grand Canyon beat Chaminade, 102-64. On Saturday, it beat the Silverswords, 87-36.

BENNY-FIT FOR HPU

Former HPU All-American and Major League Baseball player Benny Agbayani will be the featured speaker at the Feb. 27 HPU Baseball Fundraiser at the Hawai'i Okinawan Center.

Agbayani, a former teammate of head coach Garett Yukumoto, earned NAIA first-team All-America honors in 1993. He was drafted by the California Angels and was a member of the New York Mets' 2000 World Series team. He has spent the past five seasons playing for the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Japan League.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.