Southwind's Markylan Freeman had 22 points and led all scorers in the Jaguars' win over Kailua. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Mon, Dec 19, 2016 @ Iolani

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Southwind

47

Kailua

38

Final	1	2	3	4
Southwind	12	9	10	16	47
Kailua (11-4, 19-10)	11	12	13	2	38

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

C. Mejia 11 pts  3/4 FTs

M. Freeman 22 pts  2 3pm  2/4 FTs

C. Mejia 10 tot  5 off  5 def

R. Boyd 7 tot  3 off  4 def

E. Torres-Kahapea 4 ast

M. Freeman 4 ast

Markylan Freeman had 22 points and led all scorers as Southwind (Memphis, Tenn.) used a fourth quarter surge to edge out Kailua, 47-38 on the third day of the 32nd Iolani Classic Monday afternoon.

The Jaguars advance to the semifinals where they will square off against Oak Hill (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) on Tuesday, Dec. 20 at 6:30 p.m.  

Southwind trailed by as many as seven points late in the third quarter, but made a fiery comeback with the use of its hectic full court pressure in the last period of play.

"In Memphis, we just play full court, we get up, we get up and we press them all day," said Freeman.

Kailua was successful in breaking through Southwind's press throughout the first three quarters, but appeared fatigued in the final minutes.

The Jaguars recognized the opportunity and never let up their pressure, forcing eight turnovers in the fourth quarter alone, despite being three players down due to injury. Kailua had total 19 turnovers in the game.

"Yeah, that's what we do, but I'm low on numbers. I've got one of my starters back home, he had a concussion," said Southwind coach Paul Edwards. "I'm also missing two other guys so, once we get our team back we'll do a lot more of that."

Southwind opened the fourth quarter with a 9-0 run going up by four at 40-36 on Andrew Anderson's layup, taking advantage of Kailua's sixth turnover of the quarter.

Christian Mejia came up with a big putback layup to stop the Jaguars' run and pull the Surfriders within two points midway through the fourth.

The momentum had already swung however, as Freeman responded with a baseline layup to push the lead back to four, 42-38, with Southwind comfortable utilizing the 35-second shot clock.

"We started off kind of slow, but once the momentum changed, we got a couple steals in our press. We started getting up and getting the points," said Freeman. 

In the following possessions, Freeman held the ball at half court and hit back-to-back shots late in the shot clock. Kailua was unable to score in response as its 3-point attempts fell short in the closing minutes.

Edwards explained that he was confident his team would pull through despite the deficit late in the game.

"I basically told them we were still in the game. We missed a lot of shots," said Edwards. "We just had to settle down and kind of get a couple shots to go in and speed it up a bit."

Going into the semifinals coach Edwards expects a challenge.

"The opponent tomorrow is going to be great, we know that, but we're just going to prepare and go out and have a good show," said Edwards.

Kailua coach Wally Marciel acknowledged his team's struggle with the Southwind pressure but looks forward to improving.  

"I think everybody in the gym noticed that we need to handle pressure better. We lost our legs at the end on our shots," said Marciel. "All learning, we'll work on pressure a little bit more, our passing, and that's what preseason is all about."

Mejia led the way for Kailua with 11 points and 10 rebounds for his second consecutive double-double in the tournament.

Kailua will play Dr. Phillips (Orlando, Fla.) in the consolation bracket on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.