No. 9 Campbell takes down Radford, 57-54

Campbell players celebrate after a made basket against Radford. Sherwin Acidera | SL

EWA BEACH - Despite missing one of its starters on senior night, Campbell showed its depth with a 57-54 win against Radford Tuesday night at the Sabers' gym.

Lamart Dudley scored 16 points and made key defensive rebounds in the closing minutes to help the No. 9 Sabers (8-0) remain undefeated with Leilehua (7-0) for the lead in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Western Division.

The Rams (5-2) drained 11 3-pointers, five by Jordan Riley, who led all scorers with 25 points. But the equalizer came at the free-throw line. The Sabers shot 13 of 19, while the Rams were 9 of 21, including 3 of their last 10 attempts.

Campbell played without senior guard Michael Merchant and his 11.9 points per game. He had an asthmatic attack early Sunday morning after the Waialua game.

"He's been in the hospital since Sunday morning and he just got out today, just before the game," Campbell Wyatt Tau said.

Even senior Jomar Jett Gapusan was lost for a spell early in the second half when he drew his fourth foul. He scored nine of his 13 points in the first half.

But others came through.

Junior Zachary Arata came off the bench, scoring all of his 11 points in the second half, the bulk from three 3-pointers.

"As far as we've been practicing, we do so much scenarios with and without those guys," Tau said. "It was a matter of the guys stepping up. Hats off to our back-up guys."

The Rams were trailing 55-52 with 33 seconds left in the game, when TyReese George went to the free-throw line in a one-and-one situation. He missed, but teammate Latoine Thompson got the rebound and missed his drive to the hoop, as Dudley came down with the rebound and was quickly fouled.

Dudley converted both ends of the one-and-one to increase Campbell's lead to 57-52 with 10 seconds left.

On the Rams' ensuing possession, Riley was fouled beyond the 3-point line and went to the free-throw line for three shots with 1.8 seconds left. He made the first two, but missed the third and Dudley secured the ball with his sixth rebound of the game to seal the victory.

"Coach always stresses to us about how defense wins games and that's what we had to do tonight, grab rebounds," said Dudley, one of eight seniors honored after the game. "I just had to do my job."

Senior David Marrero also was a defensive force with eight rebounds and two blocked shots.

The game was close throughout. Gapusan went coast-to-coast, driving for a layup with two seconds left in the first quarter snap an 11-all game.

The Rams would battle back in the second quarter, tying the game at 13, 19 and with 1:06 left on George's put-back to even the score at 24 at the half.

The Sabers took a 35-34 lead early in the third when Marrero made one of two free throws, but the Rams took the lead on back-to-back 3-pointers by Thompson and Riley. But the Sabers used a 7-0 run capped by a Dudley layup to regain the lead at 32-30.

The Rams took the lead back on successive 3-pointers by Riley to make it 36-32.

After Arata's 3-pointer pulled Campbell to 36-35, Jayce Bantolina's steal led to a layup by Gapusan off the break to put the Sabers ahead, 37-36 with 1:47 in the third. The Sabers got 3-pointers from Bantolina and Arata later to give the Sabers a 43-38 lead entering the fourth.

Campbell was able to hold on to the lead, watching the Rams pull to within one twice, the last being at 53-52 with 2:28 left in the game. But the Sabers sealed the game by making 4 of 5 free throws in the final 1:43 to the Rams' 2 of 6.

The win keeps Campbell's hopes alive for the division title. The Sabers play at Aiea on Thursday before their big matchup with Leilehua on Feb. 6.

It was a tough loss for the Rams, who needed the win to pull closer to the top. And on Thursday, they host Leilehua, the other unbeaten in the West.

"It's a week of opportunity," Radford coach William Sankey said.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].