Maryknoll smothered their cross-street rivals to erase a 35-year title drought. CJ Caraang | SL

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_19022452_chase_PUN-MS_CJCARAANG-8140.jpg - CJ Caraang | SL

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MANOA — Kelly Grant can now de-stress for the next couple weeks.

No. 1 and top seed Maryknoll smothered their Wilder Avenue rival and No. 2 Punahou, 50-34, to win their first Snapple/HHSAA Division I Boys Basketball State Championship since 1984 at the Stan Sheriff Center Saturday.

"Super stressful. I had a hard time sleeping every night," admitted coach Grant. "I know we can do a lot of things, but as a coach, you always want your best product meaning your plays, personnel. I'm going to enjoy this a couple weeks, but after that I'm starting to think about next season."

Things have come full circle for coach Grant. He won a state title as a player and 35 years later, he brings the trophy home to his alma mater. He won a state title back in 2007 with Kaimuki, which ironically was against the Buffanblu.

"This year was their year, they hit all the check marks. They were the better team and this was their year. We were in their shoes last year and you could see it, they were hungry and and I'm happy for them, especially for Kelly, this was a special moment for his boys. We had that last year with Darnell (Arceneaux) and his son (Cole)," said Punahou coach Darren Matsuda.

"Looking into the crowd today, there were a lot of proud alumni. It was a proud moment for our for community," said coach Grant.

Marcus Tobin scored a team-high 17 points and five boards and Makoto Kamata followed up with 16 points and was a perfect 8 for 8 from the charity stripe.

"It feels great. Coach Kelly won't be talking about his state championship for a while now. During practice all he would talk about how he was the last one to win at Maryknoll. We wanted to prove him wrong that we can win and that was a great feeling," said Kamata.

Maryknoll beat Punahou in all three Interscholastic League of Honolulu meetings by an average of 10.3 points prior to tonight.

"It's hard. It's like practicing with them because they know all your moves because you played them four times already. You have to be more creative and think outside the box. It's a little harder, but it makes it more fun because it's competitive," said Tobin.

"We have our plays we're going to run and then the next day, I'm throwing something else inside there. We ran two different man plays and a press breaker. You have to show them something different. They ran different plays also," said coach Grant.