Hawaiian Electric Game of the Week
La Lumiere knocks off top-ranked Montverde


  



Fri, Dec 21, 2018 @ Iolani


Final 1 2 3 4  
Montverde 11 10131751
La Lumiere 13 10 13 2258
G. Drumgoole 18 pts  2 3pm  10/11 FTs
M. Moody 15 pts  3 3pm  4/4 FTs
I. Stewart 8 tot  1 off  7 def
P. Achiuwa 7 tot  3 off  4 def

KAPIOLANI — A new champion will be crowned at the Iolani Classic Saturday night.

Three players scored in double figures to lead La Lumiere (La Porte, Indiana) to a 58-51 win over defending champion Montverde (Florida) in the semifinals of the prestigious 16-team tournament Friday night.

Gerald Drumgoole scored 18 points, Keion Brooks 17 and Wendell Green 13 for the Lakers (11-0 overall, 3-0 Iolani Classic), who can capture at least a share of their first Classic title with a win over Oak Ridge (Orlando, Florida) Saturday.

La Lumiere's win over the Eagles (8-1, 2-1), ranked No. 1 in the USA Today Super 25 national rankings, came 349 days after the teams last met. Montverde posted a 77-55 victory over the Lakers in last January's Cancer Research Classic to finish as the top-ranked team in the country.

"They're a good team," Lakers second-year coach Patrick Holmes said of Montverde. "We brought in eight new guys this year, so a lot of new pieces, but we've had good history and great games with these guys. They put it on us pretty good last year in Wheeling, West Virginia and we're gonna see them in two weeks."

The teams also met in the championship game of the Dick's Sporting Goods High School Nationals in Middle Village, New York back in April 2017, which La Lumiere won by a score of 70-52. That served as the Lakers' last win over the Eagles until Friday night.

La Lumiere, who entered the week ranked No. 5 by USA Today, got the job done on both ends of the floor. It shot 47.2 percent from the field (17 of 36), including a 60-percent clip from beyond the arc (6 of 10), while holding Montverde to just 31 percent shooting from the field (18 of 58). The Eagles were 4 of 16 on 3-pointers and were out-rebounded 34 to 26.

"I've been trying to work with this crew really hard on defense. They probably get sick of practicing defense every single day, but it paid off. They executed the game plan," Holmes said. "We scouted their stuff, the guys talked, finished with defensive rebounds, (our) ball-screen coverage was great, but it was a great win."

The Lakers limited 7-foot-1 Florida State-commit Balsa Koprivica and 6-foot-9 Omar Payne to just two points apiece.

"I told our guys that we're not going to get into a running contest and beat these guys. We gotta try to make it ugly, keep it a half-court game and execute," Holmes said. "We made some big stops down the end, made some key shots and last year when they beat us, we were kind of young. This year we're a senior-laden team and our seniors made big plays down the stretch."

La Lumiere held a 36-34 lead at the end of three quarters but scored on its first six possessions of the final period to stretch it to a 50-38 advantage on Drumgoole's 3-pointer from the right corner off an assist from Brooks with 3:25 left in the game.

Holmes said that just as his team did in Thursday's 73-54 quarterfinal win over West Linn (Oregon) — when it blew open a 3-point game at halftime with a 23-point third quarter — its defense turned the tide Friday night.

"I always tell our guys that defense leads to offense and you gotta guard somebody, especially if you want to play at the highest level of college basketball. College coaches are gonna want you to stop somebody and guard as a freshman and I thought we took a lot of pride in guarding," Holmes said.

Brooks grabbed eight rebounds for the Lakers, as did fellow senior forward Isaiah Stewart, who also recorded three of his team's five blocks in the win.

"It was a gang-rebounding effort, five guys defending as one," Holmes said. "That's what we told them, ‘you're only as good as your weakest defender,' and tonight we had some dudes out there."

Moses Moody led the Eagles with 15 points off the bench. Case Cunningham had 14 points and Precious Achiuwa added 12 points with seven boards and two blocks in the loss.

La Lumiere shot 18 of 24 from the free-throw line, including 12 of 15 after halftime.

Montverde shot 11 of 15 from the line.

There were six ties and eight lead changes. The Lakers took the lead for good on a Drumgoole 3-pointer from the right wing to break a 31-all tie with 2:05 left in the third quarter.

La Lumiere improved to 9-2 all-time in the Classic. It is the program's third time playing in the tournament and first appearance since 2015, when it reached the championship game, but lost to Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth, California).

The Eagles, who are playing in their fourth Classic, fell to 11-2 all-time in the tournament. They beat Jefferson (Portland, Oregon) in last year's championship game.

Saturday's final day of the tournament has been adjusted due to California Interscholastic Federation rules that does not allow for its member-schools to play teams that do not belong to a state federation — such as La Lumiere.

Sierra Canyon held off Westchester (Los Angeles) by a score of 64-49 in the other semifinal Friday, but because both teams are CIF schools, neither is permitted to play against the Lakers. Instead, La Lumiere will meet Oak Ridge at 6:30 p.m., while Montverde will face Sierra Canyon at 8 p.m. Saturday.

If both the Lakers and Trailblazers win, the teams will be crowned co-champions. The Lakers can win the title outright with a win over the Pioneers, coupled with a Trailblazers' victory over the Eagles. A win by Sierra Canyon and a La Lumiere loss would give the Trailblazers their second Classic crown in four seasons.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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