Southwind pounces on Punahou, 76-51

Southwind's Carlos Boyd attempts a dunk over Punahou's Keala Martinson. Greg Yamamoto | SL

Four Southwind (Memphis, Tenn.) starters scored in double figures to rout Punahou, 76-51 on the opening day of the Iolani Classic at Iolani's Lower Gymnasium on Friday.

The Jaguars advance to the quarterfinals to take on Kailua. The Buffanblu drops to the consolation bracket to play Corona Del Sol (Tempe, Ariz.) on Monday, Dec. 19.

"Everything and more, that's the best way to put it," said Southward coach Paul Edwards, on the trip to Hawaii. "It's beautiful, awesome and it was good to get a win here."

Carlos Marshall (21), Markylan Freeman (15), Robert Boyd (14) and Christian Jones (14) and Kameron Jones (8) all combined for 72 of the Jaguars' 76 points. Edwards was pleased with the scoring output.

"That's what we're about. When we have four or five guys, we done a good job," said Edwards.

"We're thankful to be back in the tournament. We don't see these kinds of teams," said Punahou coach Darren Matsuda.

The Jaguars, who make their first-ever tournament appearance, pounced on the Buffanblu to take an early, 11-2 lead forcing Punahou to call timeout at 4:16. Southwind extended the lead to 17-4 after Carlos Marshall's 3-point play.

Southwind broke Punahou's full court press to get layups in transition.

"We have to do a better job of hustling back and we can prevent that stuff if we take care of our business. I thought the first half we did a good job, but second half we wore down a little bit and didn't do a good job," said Matsuda.

Punahou trimmed the deficit to four after starting the second quarter on a 8-1 run. Southwind pushed the lead back up to eight, but the Buffanblu used their full court press and returned the favor and forced turnovers as Zayne Chong's layup brought Punahou back within four and the Jaguars used a timeout.

"We did a good job staying in the moment and doing what we do," said Matsuda.

"A lot of it was excitement being here and a little tired. We were going too fast," said Edwards, on the turnovers and mistakes.

Southwind held a 33-26 lead at the half.

"I thought they (Punahou) was very good. I was telling my kids at halftime, if we cut like they cut and screen like they do and give the effort like they were doing. Hat's off to them, they did a great job," said Edwards, on Punahou.

Edwards felt this game was a good opportunity for the Jaguars to play with the shot clock. Freeman found Boyd for the 3-point play just before the shot clock expired.

"It was our first time, we don't depend on the shot clock because we never play with it. We were fortunate to get some at the clock," said Edwards.

Just like a jaguar, Southwind went for the kill and exerted their length and athleticism to wear out Punahou to score 24 of their 43 points in the third to put the Buffanblu away for good.

"Usually we wear teams down, but I think we wore ourselves down a bit. A lot of the shots were short and they wrapped up their defense. They're super athletic, we probably won't see a team like that, at least not for a while," said Matsuda.

Chris Kobayashi led Punahou with 12 points and Cole Mausolf and Andrew Martinson each added 10.

Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].