Aiva Arquette (1) finished with a game-high 22 points and puts up a point-blank shot as he's contested by Ayndra Uperesa-Thomas (21). Brandon Ching | SL

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Thu, Feb 10, 2022 @ Saint Louis

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Punahou

37

Saint Louis

44

Final	1	2	3	4
Punahou (7-6, 11-7)	7	10	5	15	37
Saint Louis (11-2, 20-2)	8	10	14	12	44

A. Arquette 22 pts  2 3pm  4/7 FTs

D. Watanabe 10 pts  1 3pm  1/2 FTs

KALAEPOHAKU—Win and they're in.

Aiva Arquette scored 22 points and top-ranked Saint Louis pulled away late in the fourth quarter to beat No. 2 Punahou, 44-37, at the Clarence T. C. Ching Athletic Center to clinch a  state tournament berth on senior night.

"This is a special group of guys. Aiva, AJ, Shoncin, those three guys have been around. They've been close and saw what it was and they've committed. You have a whole group of other guys that join in and you don't see the hard work and those guys put in tremendous amount of work. Our parents have been supportive and good things happen when you have a lot of people committed," Saint Louis coach Dan Hale said.

The Crusaders (9-2) conclude the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I regular season at Damien (0-11) this Saturday and claim the top seed in next week's postseason tournament and automatically advances to the tournament final on Saturday, Feb. 19.

The Buffanblu (7-4) saw their four-game winning streak come to an end and will host Iolani (8-3), who beat No. 3 Maryknoll tonight, 45-34, on Saturday for their regular season finale.

Should Saint Louis and Iolani finish with identical records, the Crusaders hold the tiebreaker over the Raiders after beating them twice in the regular season.

A 50-45 loss to the Spartans on Tuesday heightened the sense of urgency coming into tonight's matchup.

"After that tough loss to Maryknoll, we wanted this badly," Arquette said. "They (Punahou) have a lot of shooters and we had to get on those shooters. We prepared for this team really well."

The stakes were high but several seniors stepped up to deliver. Along with Arquette's 22, Hayden Bayudan added 11 points and shot 3-for-3 from the charity stripe and Shoncin Revuelto had seven points and was 4-for-4 from the free throw line late in the fourth quarter.

"We knew this game was important. We had a bad losses. We were laser-focused on what we had to accomplish. We knew what the stakes were and it was for the first seed. We had this in mind since summer and we had to stay composed in what we were doing," Bayudan said.

Saint Louis took a 8-7 lead going into the second quarter but Punahou opened up the quarter with a 7-0 run and Drake Watanabe's 3-pointer from the left wing forced a Crusader timeout at the 4:44 mark.

The Buffanblu went up 17-10 after Balen Rigg hit a 3-pointer from the right wing. Arquette scored the next eight points and hit a long, contested jumper that beat the buzzer as the Crusaders rallied to take a 18-17 lead going into intermission.

"That shot, AJ fed me with a great pass from him and I shot it and it went in," Arquette said.

"Both teams wanted to be patient and take good shots and be efficient. We missed a lot of shots we wished we could have back and they hit some tough shots. That was the difference in the game. Aiva hit some incredible shots and I thought we guarded him well," Punahou coach Darren Matsuda said.

Peyton Macapulay (six points) kept Punahou within two off a dribble-drive, but Arquette scored the next three points to extend the lead to five, 24-19. Drake Watanabe split a pair of free throws, but Shoncin Revuelto drained a 3-pointer and Bayudan added a transition layup to put the Crusaders up nine.

"We like to play fast but we understand the ILH games are about possessions. We knew with Maryknoll, how much possessions mean. We had to play within our tune. We had a high-low with Aiva and AJ coming in and we had to execute," Bayudan said.

Zachary Shapira (seven points) ended the Buffanblu scoring drought with a putback, but Bayudan was fouled as he hit a long jumper as time expired. He completed the three-point play to give Saint Louis a 10 point lead going into the fourth quarter.

"I thought we defended well, they defended well too. It was a pretty tough ILH-fought game. This was our first big game for a lot of these kids, a lot are first-year varsity and I can tell the nerves were there, but I think that will help us a bit," Matsuda said.

Bayudan kept the lead at 10 after a layup, but the Buffanblu battled back as Shapira completed the three-point play and Macapulay hit a shot in the lane to cut the deficit down to five before Bianco added a shot from the post. Punahou got within three after Ian Eveleth's putback off a miss at around the 2:18 mark.

"We knew they would make a run, they have too many good shooters and they're going to attack. Drake and Peyton were tough. We had to hang in there and get it with the defense," Hale said.

Shoncin Revuelto and Bayudan combined to hit four free throws while Drake Watanabe (10 points) brought Punahou within three twice with drives to the rim. Revuelto hit the next pair of foul shots to give Saint Louis a 42-37 lead.

"It was all about concentration. We have really good guys built for this moments. It's great to have them on the court at the end of the game," Arquette said.

Watanabe had a look from 3 but could not connect and Arquette grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 21.2 seconds left and put on the finishing touches by hitting both free throws.

Saint Louis struggled from the free throw line in the first half, shooting 1 for 8, but shot 8 for 11 in the final quarter to finish 11 for 22 (50 percent) for the game.

The Crusaders avenged a 55-52 loss to the Buffanblu back on Jan. 20.