Punahou's Zayne Chong drives to the basket against Lahainaluna. Chong scored nine points in the Buffanblu victory. Steve Erler | SL

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Thu, Feb 18, 2016 @ Moanalua

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Punahou

57

Lahainaluna

47

Final	1	2	3	4
Punahou (9-6, 27-9)	15	15	10	17	57
Lahainaluna (13-1, 20-9)	10	17	14	6	47

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

J. Santos 15 pts  1 3pm  6/7 FTs

A. Troske 18 pts  4/4 FTs

G. Johnson 5 tot  2 off  3 def

A. Troske 20 tot  10 off  10 def

J. Santos 2 ast

H. Hosoda 2 ast

SALT LAKE—A big fourth quarter helped No. 3 Punahou pull away from third-seeded and ninth-ranked Lahainaluna, 57-47 in the quarterfinals of the OC16/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I Boys Basketball State Championships at Moanalua.

"A lot of these teams are playing disciplined and well and the past 15 games have been like this for us. That's the way it is and we have to play that way," said Punahou coach Darren Matsuda.

Akahi Troske led the way for the Buffanblu scoring 18 points and grabbing 20 rebounds. He had timely baskets to tie the game at 44 and gave Punahou the lead late in the fourth.

The Buffanblu won the battle of the boards outrebounding the Lunas 36 to 18.

"That's the key to our success—to win the 50/50 balls then things will go our way," said Matsuda.

"Our biggest thing was rebounding and trying to get into that. Five offensive rebounds on one play, that's tough to come back from. We had a good little run and the boys felt pretty good about ourselves. We had to do the little things and that's what we've been stressing," said Lahainaluna coach Jason Justus.

Lahainaluna led, 41-40 going into the fourth quarter. Jeffersen Locke hit a 3-pointer at the 6:15 mark, but the Lunas didn't score a point until Jeremi Santos hit a pair of free throws with 49.8 seconds left.

Troske managed to tie the game at 44. Five offensive rebounds kept Punahou alive and Troske's shot in the paint gave them the lead. Kobayashi drove for a baseline layup to make it, 48-44 and Lahainaluna called a timeout at 2:18. During that stretch, Punahou went on a 11-3 run to outscore Lahainaluna, 17 to 6.

Punahou shot 9-for-10 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter to pull away and pushed the lead to 10 to the end. They shot 17-for-19 (89.5 percent) from the free throw line for the game.

The Buffanblu led 15-10 after the first quarter and went up 23-12 in the second quarter. However, Lahainaluna's defense revitalized the offense as they answered with a 10-0 run to bring the game within a point.

"Our defense is our priority and we pride in," said Justus.

"I've watched Jason's team play and he does an excellent job with those guys. They are disciplined and take good shots, and they don't lose their composure. They kept plugging away like we do and I was expecting it to be a good game and it was," said Matsuda, on Lahainaluna.

Punahou shot 5 of 16 from the 3-point line, but went 1 of 8 in the second half to finish 6 of 24 for the game.

"We got hot early, we had to stay the course, we took too many 3's. Suddenly we got cold and we had to focus on inside and out and be patient and attack the rim," said Matsuda.

Punahou led 30-27 at halftime.

The third quarter was tight as the Lunas managed to tie the game at 32 after Santos' free throws. Cley Joseph Palma converted the rare 4-point play after he was fouled while shooting a 3-pointer to reclaim the lead for the Lunas. Punahou and Lahainaluna traded baskets, but the Lunas went 3-for-4 from the free throw line at the end of the quarter.