ILH Boys Basketball
No. 4 Iolani rallies to stun No. 2 Maryknoll, 43-42


  



Mon, Feb 6, 2017 @ Maryknoll


Final 1 2 3 4  
Iolani (11-4, 22-11) 10 3102043
Maryknoll (8-4, 21-6) 9 14 7 1242
J. Cain 12 pts  1 3pm  3/4 FTs
H. Hogland 12 pts  8/13 FTs
K. Schmidt 5 tot  2 off  3 def
H. Hogland 7 tot  7 def
J. Perez 2 ast
J. Genovia 2 ast

MAKIKI — Fasten your seatbelts because Tuesday night is going to be very interesting.

A day after meeting for the regular season finale, No. 4 Iolani rallied again from a halftime deficit to beat No. 2 Maryknoll, 43-42, in a thrilling Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I playoff game at Tony Selitto Court at Clarence T.C. Ching Gymnasium on Monday night.

Iolani (9-2) advances to play No. 3 Punahou (8-2) on Tuesday at Hemmeter Fieldhouse at 6:30 p.m. The Spartans (8-3) play the waiting game and will be the Raiders' biggest cheerleaders. Should Punahou lose to Iolani, then Maryknoll gets another opportunity to play the Buffanblu for second place on Wednesday, thus pushing the single elimination postseason tournament to start on Thursday. If Punahou wins, the seedings are set and the tournament starts on Wednesday.

"We knew it would be a tough one coming in here. Based off of Saturday night that it would be another close one. To be able to come back twice against a team this good, credit our guys for an exceptional performance," said Iolani coach Dean Shimamoto.

Justin Genovia and Hugh Hogland led Iolani with 12 points apiece. Hogland grabbed seven rebounds and blocked two shots. Jaylen Cain led the Spartans with 12 points and Kaulana Schmidt added eight points including two 3's in the loss .

"He's one of our guys who brings that kind of energy and aggressiveness to our team. Most times our style is conservative, so for someone to step out of the box like that is sometimes uncomfortable, but sometimes successful too," said Shimamoto, on Genovia.

The Raiders were down by seven on Saturday to Maryknoll and found themselves down by 10 at halftime tonight. You could say Iolani drew a little inspiration from the New England Patriots, who also found themselves down at halftime, but rallied to win the Super Bowl.

"In fairness we did mention it. It was more out of joking than anything, but it seemed like a similar kind of finish," said Shimamoto with a laugh.

Helam Baldomero's drive through the middle brought the Raiders within a point, 38-37. Maryknoll called timeout at 1:19 and as the Spartans were ready to set up a play, Genovia swiped the ball from Jordyn Perez as he was turning and converted it for a layup. As Genovia went up, Hogland was apparently intentionally fouled by Schmidt.

"He turned his back and the ball was out there, I sprinted into it and stole the ball," said Genovia.

"We were setting up our play and they stole the ball from us. The intentional foul—I barely saw what happened, they called an intentional whether it was or not. That was huge and that would basically be the game because you get free throws and the ball back," said Maryknoll coach Kelly Grant, on the play.

Hogand came up empty-handed from the free throw line, but the Raiders received the ball back on the baseline. Cole Hogland was fouled with 59.0 seconds left and he sank both free throws to make it, 41-38.

Perez hit two free throws with 29.3 seconds left, but Hugh inbounded it to Cole, who made the layup in transition plus the foul. Perez would foul out, but Cole could not make the free throw to make it, 43-40. Maryknoll called a full timeout with 20.7 seconds left. Kainoa Ferreira drove and made the layup, but the Spartans did not have any timeouts as the game clock expired.

"Give credit to Iolani. They are a tough team, when they run their defense, they are going to run it as aggressive as the officials will allow them to do. Once they called it tighter, they (Iolani) made adjustments to the game was being called. It was a tough, hard game," said Grant.

Iolani took a early 6-0 lead in the first and led 10-9 after the first quarter, however Maryknoll answered with a 8-0 run fueled by Schmidt's 3-pointer and Cain's 3-point play. A 3-pointer by Makoto Kamata and another by Isiah Gelacio gave Maryknoll a 23-13 lead at halftime. The Raiders mustered only three points—Baldomero's jumper and Kawika Lee split a pair of free throws.

"It's always concerning," said Shimamoto, on trailing twice to Maryknoll at halftime. "This is a tough team, they hit shots and play tough defense and we don't know where it will come from. We tried to get them to focus on one possession and a stop at a time. We were able to pull it out in the end."


"We have to work on starting better. At the start of the season, we could never come back, but it's good to see we can come back now," said Genovia.

The Raiders started the third quarter on a 5-0 run to prompt a timeout from Grant after a lob from Genovia to Cole Hogland. Iolani brought it within four, but Cain sank a 3-pointer to make it, 26-19. At the 4:29 mark, Baldomero and Schmidt were tangled up as tempers flared, and both were assessed fouls. Schmidt sank the team's sixth 3-pointer and Perez made 1-of-2 free throws to help Maryknoll take a 30-23 lead into the fourth.

Maryknoll led by seven, 34-27 off of Cain's drive, but Iolani brought the game within three, 34-31 after Hugh Hogland converted both 1-and-1 foul shots at the 3:50 mark. Cain's banker gave the Spartans a 36-31 lead, but Genovia went to the free throw line twice and came away with four points to bring it within one, 36-35. Cain missed the first of a 1-and-1, but made up for it to sink both foul shots at 2:01 to make it, 38-35.



Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].




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