Kamehameha tops 'Iolani, 47-40, earns ILH seeded berth

Kamehameha's Lilia Maio looks to put up a shot over an Iolani defender. Sylvia Lee | SL

Kamehameha's third straight win over Iolani proved to be much tougher than the first two.

The Warriors who had defeated the Raiders by 11 and 20 points in the regular season survived a tense fourth quarter to earn a hard-fought 47-40 win at Kekuhaupi'o gym.

The victory earned regular season champion Kamehameha (12-0) the ILH post-season tournament title and with it a bye in the first round of next week's state tournament. A win by Iolani (9-3) would have forced a fourth meeting to determine the overall winner. Iolani also has a spot in the state tournament by finishing second in both the regular season and ILH tournament.

"it is really hard to beat a team for the third time. We know each other's plays and that was an advantage for them and a disadvantage for us." said Kamehameha's Tiare Kanoa who led the Warriors in scoring with 11 and made several key plays in the second half.

After Iolani jumped out to a 10-4 lead midway in the first quarter, Kamehameha substituted its second unit and they scored seven straight points to lead 11-10. A basket and two free throws by cat-quick Abrianna Johnson-Edwards, who led all scorers with 17 points, put Iolani ahead 14-11 after one quarter.

Kamehameha took the lead for good, 15-14 on Kanoa's basket with 5:23 left in the first half. The Warriors' trapping defense forced 10 turnovers and outscored the Raiders 17-6 in the second quarter to take the game's biggest lead 28-20 at the half.

In the third quarter,Iolani grabbed the momentum by going into a 2-3 zone which forced Kamehameha to miss 9 of its first 10 shots. The Raiders got within one, 32-31 when Jade Botelho completed a three-point play with 38 seconds left. But Breann Nueku drained a three-pointer in the dying seconds to make it 35-31 after three quarters.

With 4:40 left in the final quarter and leading by six, Kamehameha went into a stall offense. Despite committing three turnovers and not scoring for over three minutes, the Warriors managed to hold on, thanks largely to making six of six free throws in the last 1:38.

"Coach (Darold Imanaka) called for a spread and wanted us to control the ball." said Kanoa. "We were resilient and didn't let the turnovers beat us. We play one game at a time and don't focus on the next, but we didn't want to play them again tomorrow."

Imanaka must have been glad that the game didn't go into overtime. He left immediately for a dinner and missed his team's picture taking and post-game celebration.

In defeat, Iolani got strong games as usual from Edwards, Alex Masaquel (11 points) and Jade Botelho (10 points). But only one other Raider scored compared to Kamehameha which got points from eight different players. Ultimately, Iolani was done in by too many turnovers, missed shots from close range and fouls.

Kamehameha made 17 of 25 free throw attempts (after missing their first four) for 68%, while Iolani was just 9 of 16 from the line for 56%.