Punahou's Micah Maa attempts to get a shot off as Iolani's Hugh Hogland defends. Maa had a strong all-around game, chipping in 5 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and a key block in the win. Evan Asato | SL

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Fri, Feb 20, 2015 @ Punahou

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Iolani

46

Punahou

48

Final	1	2	3	4
Iolani (18-8, 18-8)	12	11	12	11	46
Punahou (24-5, 24-5)	18	14	10	6	48

SEASON LEADERS

Justin Kam 12.2 ppg  39 3pm  75.4 FT%

Erik Yamada 8.9 ppg  13 3pm  79.0 FT%

Punahou held off a furious Iolani (8-4) rally late in the fourth to prevail, 48-46 in the last seconds to claim the Interscholastic League of Honolulu title at Hemmeter Fieldhouse on Friday night.

The Buffanblu (11-1) clinch a seeded berth and a first-round bye in the New City Nissan/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I Boys Basketball State Championships starting on Wednesday, Feb. 25.

"Win or lose that was a great game, that was a great experience for that type of game, both teams had to grind it out," said Punahou coach Darren Matsuda.

Justin "JB" Kam led Punahou with 13 points, Dayson Watanabe scored 12 points, and Jordan Tanuvasa added 10.

Iolani trailed, 48-46 and called a timeout with 9.0 seconds remaining to draw up a play. Micah Maa partially blocked Robby Mann's shot near the baseline and the ball went out of bounds with 1.7 seconds left.

The refs initially gave it to Punahou, but reversed the call and gave the Raiders the ball on the baseline. Erik Yamada inbounded it to Pikai Winchester who had a 3-point attempt from the left corner to potentially win the game, but it bounced off the rim and the Buffanblu celebrated.

"It's feels great and feels even better because they're a great team right there and knew how dangerous they were," said Maa, on beating Iolani. "What they did last year was crazy and we used that as motivation and prepared as best as we can and worked out in our favor."

Punahou was hot early on and shot 5 of 6 from the 3-point line in the first quarter— 6 of 11 (54.5 percent) in the first half and took a 32-23 lead at halftime. Mann and Yamada combined for 20 of Iolani's 23 first half points. Mann finished with 16 while Yamada added 15.

Punahou shot 18 of 40 (45 percent) from the field— 7 of 17 (41.2 percent) from the 3-point line for the game. The Raiders shot 18 of 36 (50 percent), 32 of their points came from inside the 3-point line.

Kam scored five-straight points to start the third quarter to put Punahou up, 37-23. Iolani managed to cut the deficit to single digits after baskets from Yamada and Mann as the Raiders trailed, 42-35 going into the fourth.

Yamada scored the first basket of the fourth quarter at the 4:44 mark. The Buffanblu shot 0-for-5 from the field to start the quarter and didn't score until Watanabe's layup with 2:22 remaining. Kam missed a 3-pointer from the right corner, but Maa came flying for the putback to make it, 46-39 with 1:37 left.

"We didn't want us to stall—we tried to be patient and let them come to us. We got to work more on free throws. Overall I thought we shot the ball pretty good from the line and fortunately it worked out for us," said Matsuda.

Kam fouled out and Bryson Hamada hit two free throws as the Raiders trailed, 46-41 with 1:16 remaining. Mann hit a 3-pointer with 35.0 seconds as the Raiders trailed by two, 46-44. Tanuvasa hit 1 of 2 free throws to make it 47-44, but Hamada answered with a basket as they trailed, 47-46 with 16.8 seconds left. Iolani fouled to stop the clock and sent Tanuvasa back to the line.

"Iolani is a good team and they execute and did their stuff on offense and we didn't defend it," said Tanuvasa.

"Defense was a bit of a struggle today. We tried to lock it down with what we could and couldn't do and sometimes we had to be smarter and not foul because of foul trouble," said Maa.

Punahou led 48-46 after Tanuvasa hit 1 of 2 free throws with 13.8 seconds remaining. Despite being down most of the game, Iolani overcame a double-digit deficit and gave themselves a chance to win at the end.

"I should've made a couple more, but we're lucky we came out on top," said Tanuvasa.

"There are no easy games this year and everybody's going to have a tough time on both sides of the bracket. Every game will be close so that type of game when it's neck and neck is good experience for us," said Matsuda, on the state tournament.