For the first time since 2010, Iolani is atop the boys prep basketball mountain.

Ikaika Phillips scored a team-high 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead Iolani past Farrington, 43-40, in the title game of the Hawaiian Airlines/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I Boys Basketball State Championships Saturday night.

A crowd of 3,382 at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center Arena saw the Interscholastic League of Honolulu champions win their third game in as many days to improve to 54-18 all-time in state-tournament games.

The Raiders, the top-ranked team in the ScoringLive/OC16 Power Rankings and the top seed in the 12-team tournament, won their final eight games to finish the season at 13-3. It was their 10th state championship in school history and first since Dean Shimamoto's debut season as coach at his alma mater.

"It's different because it's a different bunch of guys and what's most special about it is I know how hard this group works and as a coach you have a plan and you tell guys to work hard and you have a strategy, with the hope that you can keep them successful, but you never really know so you've got to get buy-in and we got buy-in and they work so hard," said Shimamoto. "You get a little nervous as a coach when you see how hard they work and then you hope you're leading them down the right path. To see them work that hard and to actually see success at the end of the long road, that's the greatest part of the whole thing."

Iolani was making its 13th appearance in a title game after missing out on the state tournament the previous two seasons.

"It's amazing, I'm speechless," Phillip said. "Three years and we finally got it."

Phillip, a 6-foot-1 senior, shot 6 of 12 from the field and was 3 of 3 on free throws. He played all 32 minutes — as did Zach Buscher — who finished with 11 points.

"It was a great team effort — it's a great group of guys — and we're state champions," player said. "There's no other feeling like it, I don't know what to say except that it's the greatest feeling in the world."

The Raiders shot 37.1 percent (13 of 35) from the field and were 16 of 24 from the free-throw line, including 6 of 8 in the fourth quarter.

"We wanted to take away anything that was easy, so we wanted to limit their transition opportunities, we really wanted to keep them off the boards and we wanted to make sure that we were up on guys that were trying to score," Shimamoto said.

Meanwhile, the Govs shot just 29.8 percent (14 of 47) on field goals and were just 9 of 17 on free throws.

"I've seen better offensive nights from us, but the kids played hard until the end," Farrington coach Allan Silva said. "Iolani played a really good game — their offensive stall hurt us — we played OK defensively, but we missed some real easy shots. All season, I don't think we missed so many easy shots like that — one-, two-footers — but they worked hard today and I'm proud of them. We had a good season."

It took a while for both teams to get it going offensively — Farrington failed to score in the first five minutes and 30 seconds of the game — and Iolani led at the end of the first quarter, 6-2.

Jacob McEnroe's putback early in the second quarter pulled the Govs within 6-5 — which was the closest they got all game — but the Raiders stretched it to a six-point lead with 2:55 left in the period. Iolani took a 21-16 lead into halftime.

"I feel like both team had a little bit of jitters, but slowly got it going," Buscher said. "It was a defensive game for the most part, but I'm just really proud of my team."

The Raiders scored on their first three possessions of the second half to make the score 27-18 and eventually led by as many as 10 at the two-minute mark in the third quarter following a pair of free throws by Phillip.

Farrington pulled within four points of Iolani in the final minute following a 3-pointer by McEnroe, which made the score 39-35. However, Buscher and Erik Yamada each made a pair of free throws on Iolani's next two possessions to put the Raiders ahead, 43-35. Mark Duldulao made a layup on Farrington's next possession and following a pair of missed Iolani free throws, McEnroe hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to close out the scoring. He finished with game-highs of 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Govs.

"Every possession against a team like this is very important, but the biggest difference for us was offensively we missed some key shots, real key shots early in the game," Silva said. "They had such momentum and we couldn't hit our shots and we couldn't get any momentum."

The Govs, who won the Oahu Interscholastic Association champion, No. 2 seed in the tournament and the third-ranked team in the ScoringLive/OC16 Power Rankings, saw a 10-game win streak snapped. They are now 33-14 all-time in state-tournament games. It was their first non-D2 championship-game appearance since 1970, when they were a member of the ILH. Farrington won the D2 state crown in both 2008 and 2011 under Silva.

The Raiders qualified for 16 straight state tournaments from 1994 to 2011 and won five straight titles from 2002 to 2006.

Perhaps Buscher summed it up best Saturday amid his team's post game celebration.

"Farrington is a tough team, credit them," Buscher said. "They played hard, they played great — but Iolani's back: state champs."

HAWAIIAN AIRLINES/HHSAA DIV. I BOYS BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Division I All-Tournament Team
Joshua Burnett, Maryknoll
Zach Buscher, Iolani
Ryan Garces, Baldwin
Kaleb Gilmore, Maryknoll
Jacob McEnroe, Farrington
Most Outstanding Player: Ikaika Phillip, Iolani