The Chaminade Curse : Iowa Becomes Latest in List of Upset Victims at Honolulu Tournament

Iowa is the latest victim of the Chaminade curse.

The Hawkeyes, ranked fourth at the time, lost to Division II UC Riverside, 110-92, in the championship of the Chaminade Christmas tournament Sunday night.

UC Riverside? The Highlanders weren’t even supposed to be in the tournament. They replaced New Mexico State, which skipped the tournament because of financial considerations.

“It’s our biggest game,” UC Riverside Coach John Masi said in an understatement. “We’ve never played a ranked team before. With the stature of Iowa’s program and Coach Tom Davis, sure it’s our biggest win.

“When you have a game like this, everything seems to go your way, and that’s exactly what happened. This was a picture perfect game. We don’t play this well all the time. We just got hot at the right time. And that’s what sports is all about.”

UC Riverside made 21 of 36 3-point attempts, an NCAA record for all divisions. The previous Division II record of 18 was by Sacramento State against Hayward State on Dec. 15, 1987.

“We knew we could not go against their taller players on the inside,” Masi said. “We had to shoot from the inside and hope to hit.”

Strange things tend to happen at the Chaminade Classic.

On Dec. 23, 1982, No. 1 Virginia and 7-foot-4 center Ralph Sampson were toppled by NAIA school Chaminade, 77-72, in one of the biggest upsets in college basketball history.

There were others.

A year later, Chaminade beat No. 14 Louisville 83-72 and on Dec. 22, 1984, they upset the Cardinals again, 67-65.

Davis was not surprised that Iowa had problems, though.

“We felt coming in they had proven that they were a good team and we saw a lot of evidence tonight,” he said. “They played very hard and it just shows that the talent level throughout the country is very good. You can’t overlook anyone.”

UC Riverside, 9-1, felt it had to come close to Iowa in rebounding. They did, but the Hawkeyes, 10-1, still outrebounded them 38-31.

“We put that (rebounding) as our No. 1 emphasis going into the game,” Masi said. “If we didn’t rebound, we’d be dead. We had to pack it inside and just hope.”

St. Louis beat Eastern Washington 84-71 for third place, Miami, Fla., beat Old Dominion 77-76 for fifth and Eastern Illinois beat Chaminade 74-52 for seventh.

Trailing 18-8 with 13:34 left in the first half, Iowa turned on the full court press and scored 11 straight points for its first lead of the game, 19-18.

But the Highlanders regained the lead on a 3-point basket by Chris Ceballos and held the lead for the remainder of the half. Nine 3-point baskets, three each by Ceballos and Maurice Pullum, helped UC Riverside to a 50-46 halftime lead.

In the second half, the Highlanders took a 65-51 lead with 17:05 left in the game with five consecutive 3-point baskets, three by Pat Viera.

Pullum ended the game with 33 points, Ceballos had 20, Viera added 15, while Chris Jackson and Mike Ritter each had 12.

B.J. Armstrong had 21 points for the Hawkeyes, Ed Horton had 20, Ray Thompson had 19 and Roy Marble added 17.