Johnson’s 31 lifts Lexington Catholic past Saint Louis, 78-62

Lexington Catholic's Tanner Johnson scored 31 points to lead the Knights past Saint Louis in the first round of the Iolani Classic. Peter Caldwell | SL

Tanner Johnson scored a game-high 31 points to lead Lexington Catholic (Lexington, KY) past Saint Louis, 78-62 in the first round of the Iolani Classic on Wednesday night. The Knights move on to play Bishop O'Dowd in the quarterfinals at 5 p.m on Thursday.

"He did a great job and he's a 1,000 point scorer and he's a three year starter and his teammates looked for him and they all played together for a long time. It was good to get our legs fresh and going after a 15 hour flight," said Lexington Catholic coach Brandon Salsman, on Johnson's performance.

"We wanted our team to be loose tonight to go out there and have fun because we're not going to see a team like this in our league. We wanted our kids to enjoy the moment, go out and play hard—they did tonight, we had some adversity and never gave up," said Saint Louis coach Keith Spencer.

The Crusaders had three scorers in double digits: Ihaka Johnson and Kevin Marks scored 15 points each and Jimmy Nunuha III added 13 points. Saint Louis shot 8 of 21 from the 3-point line and their 3's kept them in the game.

"They are a good ball team and made a lot of their 3's and banked them in and they were solid at the free throw line during the game. They're a scrappy group and I can see why they are rated pretty high in Hawaii," said Salsman.

"That's going to be our guys during the season and we're going to depend on them for scoring. To see them compete against a Kentucky team like that, it was promising. I'm not surprised, I know them and they are competitors," said Spencer.

Saint Louis scored the first basket as Ihaka Johnson hit a bank 3-pointer. However, the Knights went on a 17-2 run after Tanner Johnson hit his third 3-pointer in the quarter. Johnson was 3 of 5 from the 3-point line in the first quarter and scored 16 of the team's 24 points.

The 6-foot-5 Johnson shot 4 of 9 (44.4 percent) from the 3-point line and shot 8 of 10 from the field.

The Crusaders scored 19 points in the second quarter and cut the deficit to six, 29-23 after Jaymason Nunuha made a reverse layup. Lexington Catholic pushed the lead back to 10 multiple times and took a 44-34 lead at halftime.

"We had our chances to make our buckets and create mismatches and spread the floor. We cut it down to six at one point and we gave them two easy take aways and next thing you know they get buckets and it's back up to 10 again," said Spencer.

"We saw at the end of the first half they were pulling their shorts and getting tired so we knew if we played our bench and we got some depth in the game and do some stuff," said Salsman.

The Knights turned up the pressure with some full court traps in the second half and after Walker Boothe made a fast break layup, the Crusaders called timeout. Lexington Catholic pushed the lead to 17 points after Jarod Griffin's layup.

With the Knights up with a comfortable lead, late in the fourth, reserves from both teams got playing time.

"We have to play a ton better against Bishop O'Dowd, but we're here to get better to win our state tournament," said Salsman.

Saint Louis plays Mid-Pacific at 11 a.m. on Thursday in the consolation bracket.

Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].