Mayknoll's Kaleb Gilmore drives to the basket against Saint Louis. Melissa Ing | SL

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012514_BRI_7151.jpg - Melissa Ing | SL

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Second-ranked Maryknoll got a combined 46 points from the tandem of Joshua Burnett and Kaleb Gilmore in a 72-60 road victory over Saint Louis.

Burnett poured in 27 points, almost half of them coming from the charity stripe, where he hit 13-of-16 attempts, while Gilmore knocked down 4 three-pointers en route to 19 points in the contest.

A highlight of the first half came on a missed three-pointer from the top of the key by the Spartans that was cleaned up with a soaring tip-dunk by Burnett. For good measure, the six-foot-four senior swished a three-pointer on the next trip down the floor to push the margin to double-digits.

"Kaleb and Burnett, they are the two best in the state. But my boys battled against them, they played hard. They made it difficult for those guys. Cause we know that's the two guys that really takes that team far," said Saint Louis head coach Keith Spencer.

Maryknoll (7-1) made more free throws (23) than Saint Louis attempted (20) in the contest, though the Crusaders did end up with a sparkling 90% from the line compared to just 67% for the visiting Spartans.

"When we make free-throws, that's how we are able to beat teams. We didn't make free throws in the game that we lost (against Punahou)," commented Burnett.

The Spartans built a 16-7 lead in the first quarter, and extended to a 12-point lead at the half. Reserve Calvin Koo played big minutes in the first half, scoring 7 points in the half, and played well in the place of Kalei Victorino, who went down with an apparent leg injury in the first quarter and did not return.

"Calvin was not even a consideration two weeks ago. Calvin has just been biding his time, been practicing really well, and he just showed me today he wanted to play. He hit a big three and was 4-for-4 from the free throw line. Those are some big points," said Grant.

Spencer Johnson's three-point play capped off a 7-2 Saint Louis scoring spurt that trimmed the lead to just 6, but the Crusaders just were not able to get any closer.

Still, while the Crusaders weren't able to close to a single possession in the contest, the Spartans had just as hard of a time trying to put away the home team.

It seemed like each time Maryknoll extended the lead into the 12 to 14 point range and looked poised to put the game away, a gritty Saint Louis club clawed their back to within striking distance.

"They swtiched up their defenses well tonight, it took us a series or two to make some changes. They also broke us down on the dribble drive, and they did it to us the last time we played them. So we did make some adjustments, but Kaleb and Josh were just a little too much, they did a really good job." said Grant.

Jimmy Nunuha III's three from the top of the circle with just ticks left in the third brought the Crusaders to within nine, but a Gilmore three-pointer and a Tyson Kaloa layup pushed the margin right back into the teens in the early moments of the fourth.

Kaloa extended the margin to 15 at the six minute mark, but saw the lead evaporate right back to 9 on back-to-back triples by Ihaka Johnson with just over 4 minutes to play.

The fourth three-pointer of the game for Gilmore at the 2:10 mark was a back-breaker for the Crusaders, pushing the margin back to 13, and the Spartans were able to make enough free throws (8-of-15 in the fourth, but 3-of-5 by Burnett in the closing moments) in between of keep-away down the stretch to preserve the win.

Ihaka Johnson had a team-high 17 points for the Crusaders, which included four from three-point range. Nunuha added 16, including 9-of-10 from the free-throw line.