Punahou's Kaulana Makaula puts up a layup against Saint Francis in the second half. CJ Caraang | SL

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Thu, Dec 21, 2017 @ Saint Francis

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Punahou

74

Saint Francis

66

Final	1	2	3	4
Punahou (10-3, 30-4)	14	14	17	29	74
Saint Francis (10-0, 29-3)	16	13	9	28	66

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

K. Ng 29 pts  3 3pm  10/11 FTs

K. Makaula 23 pts  1 3pm  2/4 FTs

B. Akana 6 tot

C. Arceneaux 7 tot

B. Nishida 2 ast

C. Arceneaux 2 ast

MANOA — After a shaky first period, No.1 Punahou shook off No. 5 Saint Francis, 74-66, to take the Saints' Holiday Hoops Classic boys' basketball preseason tournament title Thursday night at the T.C. Ching Gymnasium.

Kaulana Makaula led a trio of Buffanblu double-digit scorers with 23 points. Zayne Chong and Les Falatea followed with 17 and 14 points, respectively.

The Ng brothers, junior Kameron and sophomore Kordel, combined for 49 points. Kameron had 29 with three 3-pointers and Kordel had 20.

"A week ago, we saw the rankings come out, Saint Francis was five and us at one," Makaula said. "So we came thinking this was a championship game, played with a championship mentality, just came out here to battle."

Battle indeed.

     » Punahou vs. Saint Francis Full Game Replay

On a nippy Manoa night, players got a bit chippy on occasion. But no fighting ensued.

Punahou jumped out to an 11-4 lead, only to see Saint Francis use a 9-0 run to take a 13-11 lead. But Chong's 3-pointer put Punahou back on top, 14-13, only to have Kameron Ng follow a 3-pointer that gave the Saints a 16-14 lead to end the first period.

The Saints extended their lead to 26-18 after a putback by Bubba Akana. The Buffanblu would tie it at 26 with 2:10 left on a Falatea 3-pointer. But Saint Francis regained the lead with 1:58 when Kameron Ng made one of two free throws and widened their lead when Kordel Ng scored off a steal to make it 29-26. Makaula, though, scored off one of his six rebounds to pull the Buffanblu to within one at the half.

The Buffanblu turned over the ball 12 times in the first half but took care of the ball better in the second half, when they gave up the ball twice.

"We just didn't come out with the right energy for this game," Punahou coach Darren Matsuda said. "The key of the game was the turnovers, that's what we talked about at half. Now if we take care of the ball, we're going to be a good team. I think we had 13 turnovers in the first half, at least by our count. That's unacceptable for us. A lot were unforced turnovers. We're just being sloppy with the ball.

"A lot of times, we came out conservative because they have great guards. We got a little conservative on our pressing scheme. We're not used to that so I think that kind of zapped some of our energy and focus."

The second half started close with Punahou taking 31-29 and 33-31 leads. But the Saints chipped away with free throws, two by Kameron Ng with 5:56 on the clock to take a 34-33 lead. But the Buffanblu went on a 9-0 run and never looked back.

Kameron Ng was not particularly sharp, converting 3 of 11 from behind the arc. He got a third of his points on 10-of-11 shooting from the free-throw line.

"There were some shots he was forcing," Saint Francis coach Ron Durant said. "But he's a warrior like that, but I think some of the shots, he could've taken back. He still shot 10-for-11 from the free-throw line."

Saint Francis is the only Division II team in the ScoringLive Power Rankings, trailing four Interscholsatic League of Honolulu Division I powers (Punahou, Kamehameha, Maryknoll and Iolani). Punahou handed Saint Francis only its second loss in preseason; the other by Kamehameha.

Though the Saints can put up a good fight with the powers, the difference that keeps them in D2 is depth.

"(The Buffanblu) made some adjustments and guys off the bench weren't helping us that much," Durant said. "Bubba (Akana) was the only guy contributing off the bench. We didn't have enough depth to match them."

The difference?

Punahou got 19 points off the bench, 14 by Falatea, their third-leading scorer of the game. Saint Francis had 8, all by Akana, who was the Saints' third-leading scorer of the game.

"We're six, seven deep," Durant said. "Akana comes off the bench and contributes. We had three guys who didn't score."

Still, each team got the competition they need to prepare for their respecitve ILH season openers when the new year starts.

"It pushes us," Durant said. "That's why we choose to take on the D1 schools because we need to be pushed to repeat as a champion. We need to play at this level, but to do it in the regular season, I don't think we'll these kinds of games in our league. (The tournament) also gives us an opportunity to play three games in a row, which we'll have to do if we make it to states again."

The Saints will play in the Punahou Invistional next week so they will get another dose of powerhouse basketball.

Matsuda has a lot of respect for the Saints.

"These guys are one of the top teams in the state; D1, D2, doesn't matter," Matsuda said. "They're a very good team. They almost beat Kamehameha, a very good team. I think they can play with anybody. Kameron (Ng) is one of the best players in the state."