Iolani's Pikai Winchester drives to the basket as Saint Francis' Keola Kealoha defends. Kristen Izumigawa | Special to SL

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Iolani's Zach Buscher heads to the basket for a layup against Saint Francis. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Iolani's Robert Mann heads to the basket for a layup against Saint Francis. Kristen Izumigawa | Special to SL

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Saint Francis' Matt Nuumanaia grabs a rebound over Iolani's Blaine Won. Kristen Izumigawa | Special to SL

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Iolani's Chris Gallacher puts up a shot as Saint Francis' Ranan Mamiya defends. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Saint Francis' Maunakea Mathews-Medeiros looks for room to drive against Iolani. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Iolani's Erik Yamada take the ball to the basket against Saint Francis. Kristen Izumigawa | Special to SL

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Fri, Dec 6, 2013 @ Kailua

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Iolani

53

Saint Francis

42

Final	1	2	3	4
Iolani (10-3, 23-7)	15	26	5	7	53
Saint Francis (9-2, 18-13)	8	10	17	7	42

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

M. Nuumanaia 11 pts  1 3pm  4/6 FTs

Z. Buscher 13 pts  1 3pm  4/6 FTs

M. Nuumanaia 9 tot

Z. Gelacio 6 tot

K. Kealoha 3 ast

P. Winchester 3 ast

KAILUA — A team from within its own league provided a stern test for Dean Shimamoto's team Friday night.

Zach Buscher scored a game-high 13 points to lead Iolani past Saint Francis, 53-42, in a semifinal game of the Surfriders Holiday Classic. A crowd of about 150 fans at Kailua High School saw the Raiders (2-0) build a 23-point halftime lead — which dwindled to six in the fourth quarter — then hold off the pesky Saints (3-2).

Iolani will play Kamehameha, which beat tournament-host Kailua 60-48 in the other semifinal, in Saturday's 7:30 p.m. championship game.

Buscher, a 6-foot-3 junior guard, had 11 points by halftime — including eight in a 26-point Raiders' second quarter — was 4 of 6 from the free-throw line and made his team's only 3-pointer. Iolani, played all 12 players suited up and 10 of them scored, made 16 of their 30 free-throw attempts.

Despite the victory, Shimamoto was unhappy with the way his team allowed Saint Francis back in it in the second half.

"For two consecutive days, we didn't come to play in the second half," said Shimamoto, the fifth-year coach of the Raiders. "I don't know what it is right now. That's the second game of our season and we want to make an adjustment, but a lot of things went bad in that second half. For everything that went right in the first half, it went the opposite way in the second so that's something that we have to focus on."

The game was knotted at 4-4 early, but the Raiders closed out the first quarter on an 11-4 run. Saint Francis' Keola Kealoha hit a 3-pointer about 40 seconds into the second quarter, but Buscher answered by scoring the next eight points to extend Iolani's lead to 19-11. Buscher drained a 3-pointer and following a Saints' turnover, he made a transition bucket and made one of two free throws on an intentional foul against Saint Francis. The Raiders' got the ensuing possession, which resulted in an 18-foot banker by Buscher from the left wing.

Iolani used a 16-3 run in the final 4:44 of the second quarter to take a 41-18 lead into the intermission.

The second half, however, was a different story.

Matthew Nuumanaia scored five of his team-high 11 points in the first 1:04 of the third quarter on a 3-pointer and a layup. Shimamoto called a quick timeout to try and stop the Saints' momentum.

"It started with that first possession — we gave their best player a wide open look at a 3-pointer to start the half, so the hope was that that early timeout was to say 'Hey, get your heads on straight,' but it got worse," Shimamoto said.

Saint Francis cut the deficit to 43-35 on a outback by Koki with 3:47 left in the third quarter, but Iolani scored the final three points of the period to head into the fourth quarter with a 46-35 advantage. The score held until there was 4:21 left in the game on a Blayne Won basket off an assist from Nuumanaia. Won pulled the Saints within six points on his 3-point play on their next possession, but they could get no closer.

The Raiders forced a turnover, then got a block from Pikai Winchester on Saint Francis' next two trips down the court and made 5 of 8 free throws in the final 3:25 to hang on.

"Our defense was good pretty much the whole game," Shimamoto said. "They went on some small runs to start the half, but we were kind of able to stop it and that's kind of what kept us the lead. I was looking at the scoreboard about midway through fourth quarter and we had only scored about five points for the whole half and the only thing that was keeping the score in our favor was our defense, so giving up 42 points, that's pretty good, but we've got to do a better job."

The Saints had several players in foul trouble. Nayton Koki fouled out in the game's final minutes, Ranan Mamiya picked up three of his four fouls in the first quarter and three other players finished with three fouls. The Raiders were in the double-bonus in the first half by late in the first quarter.

Nuumanaia also grabbed nine rebounds and had four steals. Won registered six boards to go with 10 points. Saint Francis will play Kailua in the third-place game at 6 p.m. Saturday.