Jordan Tanuvasa puts up a shot and helps Punahou past host team Maryknoll Saturday night. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Sat, Jan 10, 2015 @ Maryknoll

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Punahou

53

Maryknoll

52

Final	1	2	3	4
Punahou (11-1, 24-5)	14	18	11	10	53
Maryknoll (6-6, 12-10)	12	18	14	8	52

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

J. Sueing 16 pts  4/5 FTs

J. Kam 20 pts  1 3pm  5/6 FTs

J. Sueing 10 tot  2 off  8 def

A. Troske 8 tot  6 off  2 def

M. Miske 1 ast

K. Noa 1 ast

MAKIKI — Jordan Tanuvasa's game-winning free throw turned out to be the difference as No. 3 Punahou squeaked by No. 5 Maryknoll, 53-52 at the Clarence T.C. Ching Gymnasium on Saturday night.

Tanuvasa milked some time off the clock and as he drove, he slipped and was fouled by Calvin Koo, who picked up his fourth, with 3.3 seconds remaining. He air-balled the first free throw, but sank the second.

"I tried to shut everything out and act like it was practice. The first one was just bad—it slipped, I was smiling after, but I knew the second one I had to focus and I got make this. I was focusing on me, the basket and the ball. It was one free throw," said Tanuvasa, on the free throw attempts.

"Jordan's a gamer, there was no doubt in my mind he was going to make that," said Matsuda.

Saige Pulu inbounded the ball and Koo had a 3-point attempt near the top of the arc, but it didn't fall.

"I wanted smart effort and I thought they did pretty well and I wanted us to be in position to win a game against that team and I thought our kids did a good job," said Maryknoll coach Kelly Grant. "We had a play set up at the end, we almost executed the play— we were trying to get a shot in the corner on both sides. Saige made an excellent throw to Brian (Washington), but it was a little jumbled there and we had another player in that area, but the kids did well."

Punahou improves to 2-0 in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, while Maryknoll (0-2) dropped their second straight game by two points or less.

"Those guys played really well, I have to hand it to Maryknoll, they played a great game tonight. We got a little overexcited in the first half, we were doing some stuff out of character, but we settled down in the second half and the veterans led us the way home," said Punahou coach Darren Matsuda. "They stayed composed under pressure and this was a pressure game. We need these kind of games and I'm proud of the kids for sticking together. Even in the times when the game looked like it was slipping away, they stayed in the moment and stayed together."

"Maryknoll is a great team and they battled, coming into this game we had to play our game, push the tempo and be aggressive. It was a great win for us, we have a lot of seniors so we're used to this environment, but it's always a tough environment to play in so it was a great victory for us," said Justin "JB" Kam, who scored a game-high 20 points.

Justice Sueing, Jr.'s pull-up jumper gave the Spartans a 48-43 lead, but the Buffanblu fired back with a 5-0 run to tie it at 48 after Kam sank 1 of 2 free throws. He shot 5 of 6 for the game.

Punahou reclaimed the lead after Dayson Watanabe's layup to make it 50-48 and Maryknoll called a timeout with 2:29 left, but Sueing, Jr. tied the game at 50 with under 2 minutes. He led Maryknoll with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

"The 32 minutes, I couldn't be anymore prouder of our boys, they responded and we're playing Punahou who is a senior-heavy team and when we went to the locker room, we had nothing bad to say about our game. The kids played hard today," said Grant.

Kam made a floater in the lane to give Punahou a 52-50 lead.

"He did a good job," said Matsuda, on Kam. "The good thing about these guys is that they stay in the moment. They kept playing, it was back-and-forth game. We didn't get what we wanted all the time, but that's how the game ebbs and flows."

After the ball was batted around, Pulu grabbed it and put it back to tie the game at 52 with 11.2 seconds remaining and Punahou called a timeout to talk about the last shot. Tanuvasa dribbled and ran some time off the clock before he drove and lost his footing as the refs called a foul on Koo.

"He was bumped or whatever. It's a matter if you're going to call it or not. If he didn't miss his footing, he would've taken a shot. Just because he slipped, the foul had to be called so I'm not going to blame the officials for anything," said Grant.

In the third quarter, Punahou started off on a 7-0 run after Kanawai Noa's fast break layup and the Spartans called a timeout to talk it over.

"We tried to make sure we stayed in front of them and force the tempo," said Tanuvasa.

Following the timeout, Maryknoll responded with a 6-0 run after Sueing, Jr.'s 3-point play to make it 39-36. The Spartans took a 44-43 lead heading into the fourth after Michael Miske's layup. Miske scored seven of his eight points in the third quarter.

Punahou led, 32-30 at halftime.

Maryknoll's Hayato Kamata came off the bench to score all 11 of his points in the second quarter, including two 3's and went 3 of 4 from the free throw line. Kam threw down a two-handed dunk plus the foul in the second quarter.

In first half, Punahou gave Maryknoll some full-court press looks.

"They did a good job handling our press today. We were missing some things that we got to work on that's good for us, hopefully that gives us a wake-up call," said Matsuda.

"They were aggressive, I told them teams will press you and you have to make them pay. Michael Miske attacked the basket and had strong looks, Justice took the ball to the basket so I think the kids are getting better, we had a really good week of practice," said Grant.

Dayson Watanabe scored 11 points and had six steals. Akahi Troske grabbed eight rebounds, six of them offensive giving his team extra opportunities.

"Troske has been great all year, he's a first year varsity player," said Matsuda.

Punahou will savor this victory for a couple hours before they focus on No. 7 Saint Louis, who defeated top-ranked Iolani, 35-31 on Saturday night. The Crusaders (2-0) and Buffanblu (2-0) are the two remaining unbeaten teams in the ILH and will face off on Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 6:30 p.m. at Saint Louis.

"This is a tough week for everyone and there's a lot of stuff we have to squeeze in and every game is dogfight," said Matsuda.

"I think we can't get complacent and keep working and there's always room for improvement," said Tanuvasa.

Maryknoll will play at Mid-Pacific on the same night at 5:30 p.m.

"Anybody can beat anyone in this league. The ILH you have to be on your game in the beginning. This was a great atmosphere, I don't know how many people were here 500 or 600? But I'm happy for our kids they got to experience that, and hopefully they can those kinds of crowds again in the season because they enjoyed it," said Grant.