Arkadiy Mkrtychyan scored a game-high 19 points, but it was the defense that helped Academy of the Pacific roll to a 55-49 win against Maryknoll for the championship of the sixth Na Menehune Holiday Classic boys' basketball tournament at Moanalua High.

The all-Interscholastic League of Honolulu matchup was the last tune-up for both. The regular season starts Tuesday. The Dolphins finished preseason 10-3; their losses were to Iolani Classic champion Montrose Christian, Punahou and Kamehameha. The Spartans ended 10-2 with losses coming to Punahou and AOP.

The Dolphins stormed out to a 12-1 lead with four minutes, 18 seconds left in the first quarter. During that stretch, the Spartans turned over the ball five times. Maryknoll's first field goal of the game came with 27 seconds left in the first quarter.

"From the beginning of the year, our motto has been: defense wins championships," AOP coach Walter Marciel said. "We have a lot of guys who are offensive-minded. We've got guys from all over -- Big Island (Keomalu Akiona), Russia (brothers Arkadiy and Artur Mkrtychyan) -- and these guys can score. But we're stressing more defense than ever in the last two weeks. It's showing. It showed last night against St. Joe's (in the semifinals); we held their two scorers to 23 points (combined). Tonight, it showed against that big guy. That guy is a monster."

He was referring to Maryknoll's 6-foot-9 junior center Tobias Shramm, who is from Germany. He had eight points.

"I'm very happy about our performance the last two nights," Marciel said. "It's really coming down to defense and transition and turnovers. We had a bad fourth quarter tonight on the press, but that shows just how tough Maryknoll is and how tough our league is going to be this year."

The Dolphins kept up the pressure, taking a 33-20 lead into the half. They widened their lead to 42-24 at one juncture of the third period.

But the Spartans, who were 11 of 18 from the free-throw line in the first half, chipped away in the fourth in part to 6-of-8 shooting from the line and Austin Gaskins scoring nine of his 10 points.

"Their defense is excellent," Maryknoll coach Kelly Grant said. "They put a lot of pressure on us. With that kind of defense, we need to make our free throws. We missed seven or eight free throws in the first half. That's what we offset. If we don't put pressure and stay out of foul trouble, we need to make our free throws."

Although the Spartans went 10-2 in preseason, Grant has concerns with the regular season around the bend. Maryknoll opens with a Murders' Row of defending state champion Kamehameha on Tuesday, Iolani on Thursday and preseason favorite Punahou on Jan. 7. He also will be without guard Danny Danbara, who will be out three weeks with a wrist injury.

"We're not ready right now," Grant said. "Tomorrow we'll have a nice easy practice and go hard Saturday and Monday to get ready for our game."

All-Tournament Team
Gui Aires, University
Gabriel Vega, Iolani
Duke Pauli, Iolani
Tatsuya Ono, Kalani
Chris Hammond, Moanalua
Sabastian Ohara-Saft, St. Joseph
Joshua Burnett, Maryknoll
Tobias Shramm, Maryknoll
Wilson MacLeod, Academy of the Pacific
Kamana Keahohou, Academy of the Pacific