McKinley and Maryknoll will play in the 5:30 p.m. nightcap of the Hawaii Self Storage Black and Gold Classic Saturday at the Tigers' Student Council Gymnasium. ScoringLive photo illustration

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Although the Maryknoll and McKinley boys basketball teams are quite familiar with one another — having met in the preseason each of the last five years — the two squads are in different places entering the 2017-'18 season.

The Spartans (3-0) return an experienced squad that finished with a 21-6 record and fifth in the final Hawaiian Electric/ScoringLive Power Rankings, while the Tigers (3-2) are looking to replace their top three scorers after going 12-11 last season.

Maryknoll and McKinley will play in the 5:30 p.m. nightcap of the Hawaii Self Storage Black and Gold Classic Saturday. The three-day tournament got underway Friday and wraps up Monday at the Tigers' Student Council Gymnasium.

The Spartans have notched wins over Pearl City (73-38), Kaimuki (73-35) and most recently, Mililani (66-36), in Friday's first day of tournament. A testament to their balance, they have been led in scoring by a different player each game.

"I think our strength is we have depth on this team and then we can go quick, we can go big, we have a good number of shooters, we have a good number of guys that can go to the basket and I think our basketball IQ is pretty high on this team as compared to other years, but like every other program, it's about everybody establishing their roles and buying in and working hard in them," Maryknoll coach Kelly Grant said.

Expected to lead the way for the Spartans are seniors Jaylen Cain (14.0 ppg in ILH play last year), Isiah Gelacio (7.3 ppg) and Jordyn Perez (6.0 ppg).

"They've been with me for four years now," Grant said of the trio. "They had a good offseason, they've been working hard to get stronger and quicker and so far they're doing a good job of leading the younger guys."

Juniors Makoto Makata and Marcus Tobin will also play key roles.

"We've got a lot of seasoned veterans coming back with some excellent talent coming up from the JV, so there's a lot of competition during our practices," Grant said. "The coaching staff is working hard to try and get a rotation down, (but) we have fourteen guys on the team and all fourteen can play, so my job is pretty difficult this year."

The Tigers dropped games to Mililani and Saint Francis Saturday, before coming back with wins over Nanakuli Monday and Kaimuki Tuesday. They held on Friday night to edge University, 63-61.

"We're still trying to find everyone's roles and I think after this past weekend I kind of noticed that we can give certain players more responsibilities and some a little bit less responsibilities, so that's what we're trying to work on right now," McKinley coach Duane Omori said. "We're small, but we're scrappy. They play hard. We're kind of just pushing the ball at a quicker pace, but still trying to be disciplined at the same time."

Omori's squad is senior-heavy — with just three underclassmen — but lacks experience.

"I've got about four first-year seniors and other than Kyle, the rest of the other players were more role players," Omori said. "They would get minutes, but not a whole lot of minutes, so it's kind of up in the air. We're not experienced."

With the graduation of Kevin Kim (13.3 ppg in OIA games last year), Jeremy Coloyan (11.8 ppg) and Hattachai Buttayotee (7.9 ppg), the Tigers will have to replace 61 percent of their scoring from a season ago.

Omori said most of that responsibility will likely fall to senior guard Kyle Moraga (7.2 ppg last year) — the lone returning starter from last year — and Caleb Corpening (5.9 ppg).

"We'll have to rely on Kyle for scoring, but he has to help the other players to get involved," he said. "Caleb got some quality minutes last year at the end of the games but he's tough. He's strong to the basket, he finishes well, but we're still trying to find out who our shooters are."

While Moraga will be asked to do a lot this year, Omori said the Tigers will be at their best when many parties are involved.

"Kyle's our point guard, but we want to get him to play the (off guard) also because we need him to score," said Omori, who is also hoping for significant contributions from 6-foot sophomore Frank Camacho.

"We're going to rely on him a lot for scoring, too."

Other tournament games Saturday include Mililani-Kaimuki at 11:30 a.m., Kapolei-University at 1 p.m., Hawaii Baptist-Kalani at 2:30 p.m. and Maryknoll-McKinley (JV) at 4 p.m.