McKinley edges University High, 54-52

McKinley's Dan Villejo heads to the rim for a basket against University High. Tyler Kanoa | University High

Less than 24 hours after a hard-fought, seven-point loss to Saint Louis, McKinley played their third opponent from the Interscholastic League of Honolulu in as many days and came away with a gritty win.

Dayton Lee scored 15 of his game-high 17 points in the second half and McKinley beat University High, 54-52, on the final day of the Black and Gold Classic at the Tigers' Student Council Gymnasium Saturday morning. McKinley improved to 3-1 in the preseason and 2-1 in the tournament. They beat last season's Division I state runner-up Maryknoll Thursday night, 49-48.

"It's good for us, we've been practicing hard throughout the whole summer and it's nice to play other teams than playing against ourselves," Tigers' coach Duane Omori Jr. said. "It's good competition playing against Maryknoll, Saint Louis and University. The ILH schools are very disciplined in basketball, they're well-coached teams so it's good to play against good caliber baskebtall teams."

McKinley, which competes in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Red East (Division I) Conference, used 12 of its 15 players suited up while University, a Division II team, went nine deep.

"Today we wanted to get everybody in the game," Omori Jr. said. "I think the first two games we relied heavily on our main rotation, our 10 rotation guys, but you know, we're trying to work on our man defense and with our full-court pressure, we hope to create some turnovers and that's how we get back into games."

The Junior Rainbows held a five-point lead with 3:04 left in the third quarter on a 3-point play by Ryan Kaleikini and led, 40-39, at the end of three quarters. However, a little over a minute into the fourth, Lee drained his third 3-pointer of the game to give the Tigers a 44-42 lead.

The game was tied at 50 with 1:54 to play after a pair of free throws by University Micah's Kahumoku, but Dan Villejo answered with an eight-foot banker to reclaim the lead for McKinley, which it would not relinquish. Kahumoku finished with seven points to go with a game-high 11 rebounds and two steals. Villejo scored eight of his 10 points in the first quarter and had three steals, as did Lee.

McKinley made just six of 12 free throws until the five-minute mark in the fourth quarter, but made six of their final 10 from the charity stripe to ice it.

"It's always a mystery with our team," Omori Jr. said. "The first game we missed a lot (of free throws), last night we missed just three or four free throws and today we're horrible again. The kids just have to refocus themselves once they get to the line, we've got to keep on working on it. It's always been a thorn in our side."

University outrebounded McKinley by a margin of 32 to 17. Ryan Kaleikini, a senior guard, scored 11 of his team-high 16 points in the third quarter and also had eight rebounds and Canencia added 11 points. The Junior 'Bows shot 12 of 19 from the free-throw line.

McKinley led at halftime, 25-19. There were eight ties and seven lead changes in the game.

Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].