Damien freshman Jayden Peters-DeLaura scores on a fast break opportunity against host HBA. Michael Lasquero | SL

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Fri, Jan 13, 2017 @ Hawaii Baptist

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Damien

57

Hawaii Baptist

49

Final	1	2	3	4
Damien (7-4, 12-8)	12	12	13	20	57
Hawaii Baptist (5-7, 13-13)	10	14	9	16	49

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

M. Mitchell 25 pts  3 3pm  10/12 FTs

S. Apiki 13 pts  3/7 FTs

M. Wiemken 4 tot

S. Apiki 4 tot  4 def

P. Lee 2 ast

N. Sevilleja Jr. 2 ast

NUUANU — Damien used a strong second half to hand host Hawaii Baptist its first loss in league play, 57-49, before a boisterous homecoming crowd at Dan Liu Gymnasium Friday night.

Shaun Apiki scored 13 points to help the Monarchs bounce back from a Tuesday 64-55 loss to No. 7 Saint Francis as Damien improved to 3-1 in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II standings with the win.

Hawaii Baptist saw its three-game win streak end and dropped to 3-1 in league play.

Both teams were tied at 24 at halftime, and later at 30 midway through the third quarter before Apiki scored on a tough drive to give the Monarchs the lead for good. The two teams traded 3-pointers and Dorien Penebacker scored on a runner to make it a 37-33 game heading into the final period of play.

Damien coach Al Stephenson said that his message to his team throughout the second half was to believe.

"Just keep fighting and believing in each other and believing in yourselves. You guys have been playing basketball pretty much since they were five. Don't go away from what made you a good basketball player. Just keep playing. That's all I really said to them. Keep fighting, keep playing, play within our system, attack, attack, attack."

Apiki echoed Stephenson's words.

Both teams traded points in the fourth quarter before freshman Jayden Peters-DeLaura scored six straight points to give Damien a 45-36 lead with under five minutes remaining in regulation. Most of Peters-DeLaura's scores were off of a bad Hawaii Baptist pass on an inbounding situation.

"He's been amazing for us this year, the crazy thing is he's only a freshman," Stephenson said on Peters-DeLaura. "You can't teach how to anticipate passes and he anticipates with the best of them. I'm always confident when he's in the line up and he's confident. I just don't want him to foul out. He's had some great games and some great nights and tonight was just another night for him."

Peters-DeLaura, who scored 10 points, said his experience in another sport helped him read passes.

"I was just playing how I usually do at football games, going (in) and attacking the ball."

The Monarchs also did a better job of defending Hawaii Baptist's Micah Mitchell and the rest of the offense in the second half. Mitchell scored 25 points, but it wasn't enough as the Eagles weren't able to get good shots off to climb back into the contest.

"We knew he was a good shooter, and we knew they had a couple of other good shooters on their team, but you known if we shut him down, the offense is going to crumble and we did a really good job at stopping him tonight and getting the ‘W,'" Apiki said on Mitchell.

The only other Hawaii Baptist player to score in double figures was Adam Kikuta, who was thrusted into the point guard position with an injury to four-year starter Ty Minatoya.

Hawaii Baptist coach George Weeks said the Monarchs' pressure on defense ultimately propelled them to victory.

"They're aggressive on defense (and) we're missing our starting point guard. It's one of those games where it comes down to a couple of possessions and we made a couple of bad decisions on a couple of possessions and so they were kind of able to take advantage of that."

Weeks said that Minatoya tore his quadricep in the Eagles' win over University Lab on Jan. 7. Although he is expected to be out for six weeks, Weeks still has high hopes for the season.

"I still think this team can battle. We played hard, we showed well despite being under some adverse conditions as far as not having Ty, so I'm super optimistic about what we've got going forward so I think we'll be OK."