Iolani's Ikaika Phillip puts up a shot against Punahou. Kristen Izumigawa | Special to SL

Purchase image 1 of 3

Punahou's Dayson Watanabe drives to the basket as Iolani's Hugh Hogland defends. Kristen Izumigawa | Special to SL

Purchase image 2 of 3

Iolani's Zachary Buscher drives to the basket against Punahou. Kristen Izumigawa | Special to SL

Purchase image 3 of 3

Wed, Feb 5, 2014 @ Iolani

---

Punahou

29

Iolani

43

Final	1	2	3	4
Punahou (7-5, 22-5)	11	4	8	6	29
Iolani (10-3, 23-7)	8	11	7	17	43

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

I. Phillip 19 pts  4 3pm  3/4 FTs

D. Watanabe 10 pts  2/2 FTs

Z. Buscher 6 tot

D. Andrews 4 tot

Z. Buscher 4 ast

D. Watanabe 4 ast

On Senior Night for No. 3 'Iolani, three Raiders playing in their last regular season home game put on a show as Iolani was able to sweep the regular season series against No. 2 Punahou, at 'Iolani's Lower Gymnasium, 43-29.

6-foot-1 senior guard/forward Ikaika Phillip led the way for the Raiders finishing with 19 points, four rebounds, but more importantly, shot 57 percent (4-of-7) from the land of three.

"During practice coaches told us to concentrate on executing like the first time we played Punahou. That was the strategy and that's what we did," said Phillip

Fellow senior guard Zach Buscher contributed 11 points, six rebounds, four assists and was a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line.

"Great feeling man, great way to go out playing the rival Punahou on senior night, all the students coming out here to support this big win for us, everyone played well, great team effort, Ikaika lit it up in the first half the guy's money," remarked the 6-foot-3 Buscher.

"I think our three seniors played great for us, Chris Gallacher he didn't log a lot of points, but he came in and played great defense every time we needed him to. Ikaika that's the kind of shooter he is and that's what he's capable of and Busch (Zach Buscher) is capable of doing the same thing too," remarked 'Iolani head coach Dean Shimamoto on his seniors' play.

The last time these two teams met, 'Iolani handed Punahou its first loss of the 2013-2014 campaign, 46-31. The Buffanblu were without 6-foot-8 Daniel Andrews, the sixth leading scorer in the ILH, for that game.

This time around, the Buffanblu played this game without another big man, 6-foot-3 Micah Ma'a, who injured himself against Maryknoll. But with state's fifth leading scorer in the form of junior Justin Kam and the return of Andrews, Punahou head coach Darren Matsuda thought things would be different.

Instead, the Raiders defense held Kam and Andrews to just eight points combined.

"I think we came out a little nervous and uncomfortable. It's a different chemistry, it's a different team without a teammate there and we wanted to settle them down a bit," commented Matsuda.

Things started rough for the Buffanblu, with two quick turnovers forcing coach Matsuda took an early timeout not even two minutes into the game.

Despite the early struggles, Punahou ended the first quarter with a 7-0 run and led 11-8.

The second quarter belonged to 'Iolani and Phillip as scored eight of his game high 19 in the period, single-handedly outscoring Punahou in the second, helping the Raiders take a 19-15 advantage into the break.

Punahou got back into the game in the third quarter on back-to-back drives by junior Dayson Watanabe, who finished as the team's leading scorer with 10 points, along with an Andrew's dunk that tied the game at 23 all with 2:32 to go in the frame.

'Iolani junior guard Eric Yamada hit a 3-pointer from the left wing giving the home team a 26-23 lead into the final stanza, then hit another three from the corner to start the fourth and balloon the lead to 29-23.

The 6-foot-1 Yamada finished with seven points and five rebounds.

Kam got his first and only points of the game on a drive to the bucket where he finshed with the right hand with 5:55 to play, and Davis Miyashiro-Saipa'ia, who started in the place of the injured Ma'a, got a put back layup that brought Punahou to within two points, 29-27, with 5:17 to play in the game.

From that point on Punahou was plagued by a series of turnovers, and ultimately forced to foul 'Iolani, who closed out the game at line, where they shot 75 percent from for the game.

The Raiders outscored the Buffanblu 14-2 down the stretch and secured the second spot in the ILH Division I regular season standings with the win.

"They're (Punahou) a good team, they got good guys, they got guys who can score the ball, they got Andrews in the middle it's hard to get buckets on him. It's just putting in the work in practice that gets us here," remarked 'Iolani's Buscher on sweeping Punahou during the regular season.

"We get the bye so its a big win for us, but there's a chance that we might play them again in a game that will be even bigger so no time to rest," commented 'Iolani's Shimamoto.

Iolani (7-3) receives a bye in the opening round of the ILH single elimination tournament next week, while Punahou (6-4) will host a game in the opening round.