Findlay Prep's PJ Washington scores for a dunk in the first half. He scored a game-high 27 points on 11 of 15 shooting and had double-double with 12 rebounds. CJ Caraang | SL

Purchase image 1 of 1

Wed, Dec 21, 2016 @ Iolani

---

Findlay Prep

78

Oak Hill

62

Final	1	2	3	4
Findlay Prep	25	10	22	21	78
Oak Hill	15	10	17	20	62

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

L. Wigginton 23 pts  3 3pm  2/2 FTs

P. Washington 27 pts  3 3pm  2/3 FTs

D. McCormack 7 tot  4 off  3 def

P. Washington 12 tot  4 off  8 def

M. Coleman 5 ast

J. Roberts 5 ast

Statement made.

Led by P.J. Washington's game-high 27-point effort Wednesday night, Findlay Prep (Henderson, Nev.) posted a resounding 78-62 win over Oak Hill (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) in the title game of the Iolani Prep Classic.

An overflow crowd of 1,200 at Iolani's lower gym saw Washington, a 6-foot-9 University of Kentucky-bound power forward, score 18 points after halftime as the Pilots remained perfect at 17-0 on the year.

Findlay Prep, the No. 8 in the USA Today Super 25 national rankings, claimed the Glenn Young Memorial Trophy for their second Iolani Classic crown in a span of four years.

"I'm proud of my boys. I'm excited for them," Pilots first-year coach Paul Washington said. "They actually played hard, they stuck to the game plan and we played our style of basketball. That was Findlay basketball. Findlay Prep is back, baby, and we feel good about it."

Findlay Prep shot an efficient 54.2 percent (32 of 59) from the field. It got off to a blistering hot start in the first quarter, when it shot 11 of 18 on field goals and seized a 25-15 lead.

A Matt Coleman 3-pointer gave Oak Hill its only lead of the night at 3-2. It was all Pilots after that.

Donnie Tillman scored off a feed from Washington to ignite a 19-2 run that was capped by a Washington 3-pointer that quickly made it a 21-5 Findlay Prep lead.

The closest Oak Hill got was following a Colemen 3-pointer early in the third quarter that cut the Pilots' lead to 37-32. However, Findlay Prep went on a 9-0 run, which included seven points from Washington, who had 13 in the period.

The Pilots closed out the third quarter 9-3 run to take a 57-42 lead into the final stanza. They held their largest lead at 69-44 after Reggie Chaney's drive and bucket with 4:18 left to play.

"We had to kick up," said P.J. Washington, the son of the coach. "We were up ten, and I wanted to push it to twenty, and then thirty."

Longtime Warriors coach Steve Smith said the game was decided in the opening minutes.

"I thought we were ready to play, but we didn't play well at all," Smith said. "We thought we were prepared, but they played so much harder than we did. We didn't make shots early in the game, we turned the ball over and they were scoring every time they came down the court. We couldn't get any stops defensively, especially early on."

Findlay Prep's slashers had little difficulty penetrating a porous Oak Hill defense and either finished at the rim or found open teammates who did the same.

"We do that every game," said P.J. Washington, the tournament's most valuable player. "We work on that in practice, we work on that every day so I mean, we just had to show it to everybody else here."

Smith lamented over his team's defensive effort — or rather, lack thereof.

"They'd drive it and then dump it off. If you saw the shot chart, they had a couple 3's, but everything was at the rim the whole game and our guys never made adjustments," Smith said. "We tried to adjust defensively. We tried at halftime, we tried during timeouts, we tried at quarter breaks, but nothing was working."

Smith inserted 6-foot-10 junior center Kenny Nwuba into the starting lineup in place of 6-foot-4 guard Ty-Shon Alexander to try and match the Pilots' size, but it ended up playing into Findlay Prep's hands.

"We wanted them to do that," P.J. Washington said. "We wanted them to go big, because we felt like we had a mismatch. They can't guard me, Reggie, Donnie and Lamine (Diane) at the same time."

Washington shot 11-of-15 from the field and added 12 rebounds, six steals and four assists.

"It feels great," P.J. Washington said. "Our game plan, to get out, get in transition and play our game and I feel like we did that real well and the press really hurt them and I just feel like we're the number one team in the country right now."

Diane added 19 points with seven rebounds, Tillman scored 13 of his 15 points by halftime and Chaney added 12 points with six boards. Justin Roberts chipped in with eight assists.

Oak Hill shot 23 of 55 from the field, including 11 of 27 from 3-point range — which was a point of contention for Smith.

"We just relied on the jump shot and they relied on getting to the basket," Smith said. "It's hard to compete when they're at the rim dunking and laying it in all night long and we're shooting 3-pointers."

Lindell Wiggington, who was named the tournament's most outstanding player, scored 23 points and Coleman added 22 for Oak Hill, the No. 5 team in the USA Today Super 25.

Five-star power forward Billy Preston, a University of Kansas-signee, was held scoreless in the first half and finished with just two points.

The Warriors, who were trying for their eighth Iolani Classic title in 10 tries, fell to 16-2 on the year.

Iolani Prep Classic All-Tournament Team

Zoar Nedd, Kapolei
Calvin Mattos, Waiakea
Saben Lee, Corona Del Sol
Jessiya Villa, Kahuku
Alex Barcello, Corona Del Sol
Chris Kobayashi, Punahou
Noah Morgan, Mount Vernon
Zach Marrotte, Kailua
Christian Mejia, Kailua
Daniel Love, Dr. Phillips
Marykylan Freeman, Southwind
Carlos Marshall, Southwind
Billy Preston, Oak Hill
Devonte Shuler, Oak Hill
Matt Coleman, Oak Hill
Justin Roberts, Findlay Prep
Lamine Diane, Findlay Prep
Daniel Fotu, Kahuku
Reggie Chaney, Findlay Prep

Most Oustanding Player: Lindell Wigginton, Oak Hill
Most Valuable Player: P.J. Washington, Findlay Prep
One Team Award: Southwind