Daniel Florenco puts up a shot against Maryknoll. Florenco had the go-ahead bucket in Mid-Pacific's second league win. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Sat, Jan 9, 2016 @ Maryknoll

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Mid-Pacific

35

Maryknoll

32

Final	1	2	3	4
Mid-Pacific (10-14, 10-14)	12	4	11	8	35
Maryknoll (20-10, 20-10)	5	6	10	11	32

SEASON LEADERS

Hayato Kamata 11.3 ppg  36 3pm  56.3 FT%

Justin Daise 10.3 ppg  65.7 FT%

MAKIKI – Two games into the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I season and Mid-Pacific Institute has already matched its last season's wins total.

Daniel Florenco's pull-up jumper with one minute, 14 seconds left snapped a 32-all game and Logan Hutchinson's block of Hayato Kamata's 3-point try with two seconds left lifted the No. 8 Owls by No. 7 Maryknoll, 35-32, Saturday night in a thrilling and typically competitive ILH game on the Tony Sellitto Court at the T.C. Ching Gymnasium.

"It's exhilarating," Hutchinson said of the block. "You're in that situation and that's the moment you want to play for. To be in that situation and eventually pull it out, it's a great feeling."

The Owls improved to 2-0 and are tied for first with Saint Louis (2-0) early in the season, which is expected to put all six teams through the grinder each game. Mid-Pacific finished 2-9 last. The Spartans fell to 0-2.

"It's a pretty good feeling," MPI second-year coach Ryan Hirata said. "It's the amount of time these guys put into making this program great. It's a good feeling to be 2-0."

Added Maryknoll coach Kelly Grant: "They're a very good team. They have all the pieces. They've got three bigs, a lot of guards who can handle the ball. They got guys who can attack the basket. They got 3-pointer shooters, so it's going to be tough to play against these guys."

Florenco led all scorers with 15 points, eight coming in the second half. The Spartans were 3 of 17 from the free-throw line and 0 for 3 in bonus situations.

The Owls led most of the game and by as many as 11 points twice in the third period. But the Spartans' 6-foot-6 post Brian Washington, who led with 14 rebounds, scored six of his seven points in the fourth period, including a putback with 1:36 left that tied the game at 32. The game-tying basket came after the Owls were called for a 10-second violation with 2:09 left after Jaylen Cain had pulled the Spartans to 32-30 with 2:25 left.

On the Owls' next possession, Florenco drove through the key, pulled up from about four feet for the go-ahead basket.

"Danny's a player," Hirata said of Florenco. "He wants the ball in his hands. Sometimes I don't tell him to do what he does, but he does it out of pure heart and that's all you can ask for in a senior leader like him."

The Spartans ensuing possession netted a missed shot that was rebounded by MPI's 6-4 Justin Daise, who led his team with eight rebounds, with 20 seconds left. After an MPI timeout, Jacen Kimura was fouled with 15 seconds left and made only the front-end of a one-and-one. Washington grabbed the rebound and Maryknoll called time with eight seconds left.

From the left wing, Kamata took a pass from the corner and went up for his shot, but the 6-3 Hutchinson, practically in the shooter's face, smothered the shot with two seconds left. Florenco was fouled in the process, but missed the front side of his one-and-one. Kamata came down with the rebound, but 88-foot hurl missed as the buzzer sounded.

"You have to credit them," Hutchinson said. "They were in position to score. They had a chance to make it, but we run enough sets in practice and pretty much knew what we had to do and we got it done."

Hutchinson did not score in the game, but block made up for it.

"Logan had a rough game tonight," Hirata said. "He struggled offensively; we had to get on him a little bit offensively, but he always makes plays when they count. Special players and special teams do that. When you go up against a great team like Maryknoll, you need every single possession you can get that was a huge one."

The Owls' defense was quick, hardly giving the Spartans open shots. Maryknoll did not help itself by not trying to drive the ball to the basket, perhaps drawing fouls in the process. MPI's 6-4 forward Justin Daise had drawn his fourth foul early in the third period.

"We settled for 3-point shots too much," Grant said. "I thought in the third quarter and early in the fourth quarter, we were attacking the lanes. Even though Jaylen (Cain) took a charge one, at least we were being aggressive charging the lane. That makes a difference. If you're attacking the lane, you get them on their heels and the lane opens up and the shooters get open. If you stand around the perimeter and pass the ball around and try to shoot 3-point shots with guys in your face, that's not a very good proposition."

Also distressing for Maryknoll was its free-throw shooting. The math says if the Spartans convert half of their 17 attempts, it should have won.

"I was telling them my 11-year-old team shoots 60 percent from the free-throw line,' Grant said. "It's a little bit psychological. They just have to get over that hump. Somebody just has to start hitting shots from the free-throw line and it will carry over to the rest of our players. If we hit half of our shots, I think the outcome would've been different. I'm not saying we would've won the game, but the outcome could've been different; they might have been chasing us at the end."

It's an amazing start for the Owls, who have turned ILH upside down, at least for now.

"We've come a long way," Hutchinson said. "We put a lot of work in the offseason and we're ready to show what we can do."