No. 8 Sacred Hearts rallies to beat No. 9 Punahou

Sacred Hearts' Te'Hiwa Medeiros puts in a layup against Punahou. Greg Yamamoto | SL

Sacred Hearts, the little school on Waialae Avenue, had won just two regular season games in its previous four seasons.

Wednesday night, the Lancers matched that total just three games into the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I season with a 45-40 come-from-behind victory against Punahou at the Hemmeter Fieldhouse.

What the sparse crowd of about 100 saw was the Lancers' first win against the Buffanblu since Sacred Hearts moved to D1 in the 2010-11 season.

"It's overwhelming," Sacred Hearts sophomore foward Te'Hiwa Medeiros said. "Last year, we almost beat them; it was three points short. This year, that we won. Iit feels good."

Medeiros and Pamela Lino combined for 18 second-half points to help the No. 8 Lancers (2-1) overcome a 20-15 halftime deficit against the No. 9 Buffanblu (0-3). Medeiros led her team with 13 points, 11 coming in the second half.

"It's a really big win for the program," Lancers coach Richard Kasuya said. "We're still trying to learn how to win in this league. This league is so good. This is a really big step for us."

It wasn't just a big step as far as winning. The way the Lancers won showed their balance and depth. Dallas Martinez (5 points) played about half the game, as she drew her third foul early in the second period, as Punahou pulled away to a 20-15 lead at the break. When she returned, Martinez contributed three points from free throws in part of the Lancers' 12-2 run to open the second half. But she drew her fourth foul with 5:18 left in the third then returned to start the fourth, only to foul out a minute, five seconds into the period.

"Obviously, Dallas Martinez is so important to us, but it took a lot of kids stepping us and I think they did that," Kasuya said.

The Lancers, with no player taller than 5 feet, 8 inches, corraled 31 rebounds to Punahou's 22. The Buffanblu is basically the same height until 6-4 freshman Fetogiaifaasoiatuanoi Fonoti takes the court. Off the bench, she scored six and five rebounds. She also fouled out.

"We're an undersized team," Kasuya said. "We don't have a lot of height. We have to hustle to the ball and limit the number of offensive possessions the other team has in order to have a chance against these great, athletic teams that we play, so I couldn't be prouder."

Sacred Hearts took a 30-26 lead into the fourth, but the Buffanblu could cut their deficit to 37-34 after a 3-pointer by Kamakani DeBlake, who led Punahou with 13 points, including four treys.

The Lancers opened their lead to 39-34 when 5-7 Lino drove to the hoop against Fonoti. Shortly after the basket, a technical foul was called against SHA assistant coach Eric Martinez, but DeBlake missed both technical foul shots.

After making it 40-34 with 2:15 to play when Sade Mizusawa made one of two free throws, the Buffanblu pulled to within three again on a DeBlake 3-pointer.

Sacred Hearts made five of its next six free throws increase its lead to 45-39 before a 3-pointer by Melody Lam capped all the scoring in the game.

"I knew we always had it in us to do it," Medeiros said of the win. "Tonight, we showed it. It was pretty good."

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].