Maryknoll's Alexis Delovio puts up a shot against Punahou. Delovio scored 11 points in the win. Evan Asato | SL

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Thu, Feb 5, 2015 @ Maryknoll

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Punahou

42

Maryknoll

47

Final	1	2	3	4
Punahou (9-4, 13-7)	10	7	10	15	42
Maryknoll (11-1, 20-3)	12	16	8	11	47

L. Lee 13 pts  1 3pm  2/2 FTs

E. Uyeda 14 pts  1 3pm  7/8 FTs

Ten of the previous 15 Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I girls' basketball championships belonged to Punahou. But Maryknoll senior Maegen Martin sought change.

The 6-foot post imposed her will on the cross-street rival Buffanblu and helped the Spartans underneath both sides of the boards in a gutsy 47-42 win Thursday night for the ILH Division I girls' basketball crown at the Clarence T.C. Ching Gym.

The Spartans' first Division I title since 1978 - the school won D2 titles in 2008, 2009 and 2012 - give them a seeded berth for the upcoming Division I state tournament. The title comes a little over a year since the Spartans' heart-breaking 29-28 loss to Punahou in the postseason tournament that gave the Buffanblu their 19th ILH crown.

"I've been telling my girls since Day 1, 'This is what we prepared for.'" Martin said. "Tonight we showed up and played against Punahou, our rival across the street. It's a great feeling right now."

Martin pulled down nine rebounds and limited Punahou's bigs - Vae Malufau and Tyra Moe to a combined four field goals (all by Malufau). The two Buffanblu combined for 16 points, but eight came from the free-throw line. Elle Uyeda led Punahou with 14 points, but half were from free throws.

"She's our heart and soul," Maryknoll coach Chico Furtado said of Martin. "She's our captain. When we need stuff around the bucket - defensively and offensively - she's always come through. She had two big free throws when we were struggling. She does it all. She's a great leader for our youngsters. I'll hate to see her go."

Martin was lost momentarily for the Spartans with an apparent foot or ankle injury with 47 seconds left in the third period. But she returned for the start of the fourth and continued her stellar play.

"Maegan did a fantastic job," Punahou coach Kevin Velasco said. "Give her credit, she played pretty much the whole game in there and she gutted it out. I give her all the credit."

The game started off close with the Spartans taking a 12-10 lead after a controversial end to the first quarter when Punahou's Kamaile Kendiah made a near-half-court shot, but the officials ruled she released the ball after the buzzer.

The Spartans turned up the heat in the second period, scoring in various ways. Martin and Lindsey Lee scored off of offensive rebounds to widen their lead to 16-10. Then they got 3-pointers from Alexis Delovio and Rhianne Omori to make it 22-15. Maryknoll's next three baskets came on dribble drives to the hoop by Omori, Ysabelle Halemano and Lee. Maryknoll took a 28-17 lead into the break.

Maryknoll opened its lead to 15 twice at 34-19 and 36-21 in the third period, but the Buffanblu gave a hint of what was to come in the final period when they closed with a 6-0 run to close their gap to 36-27.

Punahou kept its deficit to single digits the first half of the fourth, the went on a 6-0 run to pull to 43-40 with 1:27 in the game on a basket by Elle Uyeda, who led Punahou with 14 points.

Maryknoll's Omori faced a one-and-one with 1:24, but missed the first shot that was rebounded by Punahou's Malufau, who had eight rebounds in the game. But the Buffanblu failed to capitalize when Sunny Rosario missed a 3-pointer and when Kandiah missed on a dribble-drive to the hoop with under a minute to play. Punahou was forced to foul in the final 45 seconds; Maryknoll hit 4 of its 6 free throws to secure their lead at 47-40 with 17 seconds left. Punahou scored with four seconds on Malufau's put-back shot, but all Maryknoll had to do was run off the rest of the clock to end the game.

The title was a significant achievement for the Spartans, especially coming against one of the league's storied programs. But contributions came everywhere. Lee led the team with 13 points and Delovio followed with 11 with five rebounds.

"It feels really great to beat a great team like Punahou," Lee said. "It feels amazing. The fact that it was a total team effort. All season, as long as we play together, play hard and listen to Coach Chico, we would be able to do great things."

For the third-year coach Furtado, this was a special accomplishment in the ILH. He had won five consecutive OIA titles from 1998 to 2002 when he was at Kalaheo. He even won a boys' crown at Kalaheo when he succeeded the late Pete Smith in the 2003-04 season.

"I'm happy for our kids," Furtado said. "I've been here before with my other stints in the OIA, but for Maryknoll, I've been an employee for Maryknoll for 25 years, coaching for three with this group of kids, but I wanted it for them. My emotions are for them."