ILH Boys Basketball
Saint Francis tops Damien, 41-37, behind Won's 12 points


   



Tue, Jan 21, 2014 @


Final 1 2 3 4  
Damien (8-3, 14-8) 6 751937
Saint Francis (9-2, 18-13) 8 8 6 1941
B. Won 12 pts
K. King 13 pts
B. Won 9 tot  4 off  5 def
K. King 7 tot  3 off  4 def
K. Ikari 2 ast

MANOA — Blayne Won scored 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Saint Francis to a 41-37 win over Damien in an Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II Boys Basketball second-round game Tuesday night.

The Saints won their fourth straight before a home crowd of about 200 spectators to improve to 4-2, while the Monarchs saw their two-game win streak snapped to fall to 4-2. Saint Francis avenged a 59-53 loss earlier this month.

"It's always redeeming beating any team," Saints' coach Sol Batoon said. "It's not an easy task because you're dealing with young kids and their emotions flicker from time to time and you don't know what kid comes to play on a given day and it goes back-and-forth; somedays they're motivated to do the right thing and some days they're confused about doing the right thing, so tonight we worked hard all week preparing for what we needed to do defensively and they all did the right thing."

Won shot 6 of 11 from the field and grabbed four of his rebounds on the offensive glass.

"Blayne means a lot to us," Batoon said. "Our whole offense is centered around Blayne Won — it's not centered around Matthew Nuumanaia or anyone else, it's around Blayne Won — because he's our strongest guy and he's our most consistent guy, so we go to him all the time and we try to get him a touch on every time we come down on offense."

Saint Francis never trailed in the game, but was never able to separate beyond seven points. Damien pulled within 34-32 late in the fourth quarter on a free throw by Kapi'ina King, but the Saint made five of their final eight free throws — including four by Nuumanaia, who scored six of his 10 points in the fourth quarter.

It was a low-scoring game for both teams. Damien, which averaged 55.7 points per game entering the contest shot just 27.8 percent (10 of 36) from the field, while Saint Francis, which averaged 54.4 points per game coming into Tuesday, shot 37.5 percent (15 of 40) from the field.

King led Damien with 13 points and seven rebounds. Jaylen Layco added 10 points and seven boards and Rocklen Mori 10 points with five rebounds.

Both teams are half a game behind division-leading Hawaii Baptist, which was idle Tuesday.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




Show your support

Every contribution, no matter the size, will help ScoringLive continue its mission to provide the best and most comprehensive coverage of high school sports in the state of Hawaii and beyond.

Please consider making a contribution today.

ADVERTISEMENT


IMAGE GALLERY



MORE STORIES

Kamehameha outlasts Punahou in overtime to go back-to-back

Warriors got the game winning goal by Tea Brandon with 1:56 left in regulation and hung on to deny the...

Jr. Bows cap perfect season with first-ever state title

The Jr. Bows outlast the Bulldogs in five sets to sweep the season series to win their first-ever Division...

Wade wills Warriors in dethroning of Buffanblu for D1 state volleyball crown

University of Hawaii-bound Kainoa Wade took 76 total swings and put down 34 kills to lead Kamehameha...

Le Jardin, University Lab advance to set up all-ILH state D2 final

The Bulldogs rallied from a 2-1 set deficit to eke past Konawaena, while the Jr. Bows swept past Molokai.

Wade powers Kamehameha past Moanalua, into D1 finale

Kainoa Wade poured in 36 kills in a four set win over Na Menehune, setting up a rematch with ILH nemesis...

Balanced Buffanblu attack proves too much for Trojans

Adam Haidar and Brody Badham put down 10 kills apiece and Punahou had six players finish with at least...