CJ Caraang | SL

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This one meant just a little more to Ihi Victor than the rest of her Konawaena teammates.

Led by yet another stellar performance by two-time All-Hawaii Division I Player of the Year Chanelle Molina, Konawaena held off reigning California Division III state champion Bishop O'Dowd, 62-50, in Saturday night's Iolani Prep Classic title game.

Molina scored 22 points and was named the most valuable player of the eight-team tournament after accumulating 74 points in the Wildcats' three games over the weekend.

It was sweet redemption for Konawaena, which fell to St. Mary's (Stockton, Calif.) in last year's Iolani Classic final before going on to win their sixth state crown in school history.

Against Bishop O'Dowd Saturday, the Wildcats never trailed and used a hot start to lead by as many as 16 points late in the first quarter.

"They actually had a good start today, so I was real happy with that," Konawaena coach Bobbie Awa said.

One piece that was missing from last year's runner-up team was Victor, a 5-foot-11 post. She did not travel with the team to Oahu for the tournament because of a concussion.

"I'm really happy for her," Chanelle Molina said of Victor, who scored 13 points against the Dragons and was one of four Wildcats to be named to the all-tournament team. "She deserves it. She's a really good player. She does the little things that no one notices, like boxing out and giving me those good assists."

Victor shot 3 of 5 from the field and 4 of 4 from the free-throw line. Her first field goal was a 3-pointer that gave her team a 23-7 lead late in the first quarter.

"Ihi had a good game," Awa said. "I thought Ihi had a very good tournament. We just made a couple adjustments with her in our zone and then we had better stops when she made that adjustments, so that was very good."

Victor also had four assists, two steals and a block in the win.

"We just wanted to find the openings," Victor said. "They were always up, cheating up, so we were just looking for that backdoor."

Victor and the three Molina sisters were part of Team Aloha, which took part in an Adidas-sponsored tournament in Phoenix in April. Chanelle Molina and Victor have a special connection having played together with the Kona Stingrays basketball club over the years — which Awa coaches — and are the only two seniors on the Wildcats' roster this year.

"She had a complete game," Molina said. "She had passing, she shot well, she played good defense, she's a really big impact on the team. I'm glad to be playing with her this tournament."