AOP tops University, 51-37, to stay perfect at 3-0 in ILH

AOP guard Kamana Keohohou puts up a jump shot against University High. Brien Ing | SL

Artur Mkrtychyan scored 12 points and younger brother Arkadiy Mkrtychyan added 11 points this afternoon as Academy of the Pacific held off University High, 51-37, in Interscholastic League of Honolulu boys basketball action at Mid-Pacific.

The Dolphins improved to 3-0 in league play, alone atop the ILH standings. AOP defeated Punahou, 60-51, on Tuesday and Kamehameha, 57-48, on Thursday. UHS, in its first season of Division I after several years in DII, fell to 1-1.

"All those tournaments were to prepare us for the regular season, and our goal was to be 3-0 after this week," Dolphins coach Walter Marciel said.

After Anthony Canencia's 3-pointer closed it to 6-5 three minutes into the game, Wilson Macleod answered with his own 3 thirty seconds later to start AOP on an 11-1 run to finish the period.

The Junior 'Bows closed it to 20-14 on Cameron Conant's layup with 2:42 remaining in the half, Marshall Gourley responded with a layup and the Dolphins took a 22-14 lead into the break.

Mattia Raebel later hit a 3-pointer with 3 seconds left in the third quarter to put AOP up, 38-25, heading into the fourth.

The Dolphins then scored the first five points of the final period to push the lead to 43-25, and UHS could not get closer than 12 points the rest of the way.

"UH is a tough team, their guards are terrific," Marciel said. "We had a tough time matching up with them, so we had to play all six of our guards."

Conant led all scorers with 15 points.