Maryknoll beats Punahou, 55-45, in ILH opener Tuesday

Maryknoll's Kaile Cambra grabs a rebound against Punahou. Eugene Tanner | SL

MAKIKI — Chico Furtado wanted his Maryknoll team to make a statement Wednesday night and it responded in a big way with a 55-45 road win over Punahou in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division-I opener for both teams.

A crowd of about 150 fans at Hemmeter Fieldhouse saw the Spartans (1-0) rally from an early deficit to upend the host Buffanblu (0-1). Maryknoll is the third-ranked team in the ScoringLive/OC16 Girls Basketball Power Rankings, while Punahou holds the No. 8 spot.

Lexi Delovio scored a game-high 12 points and Maia Laboy added 10 points and Cianna Ochoco nine to lead the Spartans, who used a 22-point second quarter to seize control after trailing 8-6 at the end of the first quarter.

"I think we came out a little jittery," Maryknoll coach Chico Furtado said. "We couldn't score, we fell behind 6-2, Cianna hit a big 3 to kind of get us settled a little bit. Once we got our bearings we were OK. I think it was just that first-game jitters and Maryknoll has always been kind of second fiddle. Punahou is tough, they've got their championships and to come to their place in our opening game, there were definitely some jitters, but once we got past that we were fine."

Furtado's team turned the tide in the second quarter, using an 18-5 run to pull ahead by nine on two of Laboy's eight points in the period. The Spartans took a 28-21 lead into halftime.

"I think if you look at our shot chart, we just dominated the post in the second quarter," Furtado said. "We ran some high-lows with Maia Laboy and Maegen (Martin) and then we had some timely 3's — Maile Goodin comes off the bench and hits a 3, Kaile Cambra hits a two-pointer just inside the 3-point line — so I think it was our inside game that kind of dominated in the second quarter and opened some of the outside shots up for us."

Maryknoll maintained a lead of about eight or nine points for much of the third quarter, until Delovio's 3-point play with 10 seconds left in the period gave her team its largest lead of the game at 44-33.

Punahou used a 11-4 run to start the fourth quarter to pull within three points on Asia Olivieri's putback with 2:51 to play, but the Spartans scored the game's final seven points, including 5 of 6 from the free-throw line, to hang on.

"It's just a matter of getting our kids to realize that when you're protecting leads late in games, you've got to go to the line and hit free throws," Furtado said. "I think we missed two front ends that helped them get their start. I liked leadership at the end — Cianna Ochoco (made a) big bucket, couple free throws, Lexie Delovio made a couple free throws. It was about handling that pressure without turning the ball over and then making free throws; That's what you've got to do to protect leads."

Maryknoll shot 9-of-16 from the free-throw line and 50 percent (3 of 6) from 3-point range. Martin grabbed eight reboudns to go with six points and three assists.

Tyra Moe scored a team-high 11 points and notched eight rebounds to lead Punahou, which was 11 of 14 on free throws and 2 of 7 on 3-pointers.

The Spartans had an impressive 9-1 preseason record, with their only loss coming to nationally-ranked Long Beach Poly in last week's Iolani Classic.

"I think this was a statement game for us, but not for anybody else," Furtado said. "On my team, I have the experience of four seniors — I've got over 30 years of experience on this team when you count everybody at the varsity level — so there's no excuse not to come up here and go hard and I just told them that look, if you're not going to win this game, at least don't let them outwork you and I really thought that we worked hard."

Maryknoll hosts reigning state-champion Kamehameha Saturday at 6:30 p.m. The Warriors are the top-ranked team in the SL/OC16 Power Rankings.

Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].