Maryknoll gallops over Crater, 79-45

Maryknoll's Makoto Kamata dribbles around Crater's Garrett Dance. Michael Lasquero | SL

Maryknoll jumped out to an early first quarter lead and never looked back as it defeated visiting Crater (Central Point, Ore.), 79-45, in the second annual Tony Sellitto Hawaiian Island Basketball Challenge at Clarence T.C. Ching Gymnasium Monday afternoon.

The Spartans, ranked No. 10 in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Boys Basketball Power Rankings, used their speed and had a 27-8 lead after the opening period to help improve to 9-0 on the season.

Maryknoll took advantage of the Comets' press and maneuvered its way out of pressure to score 11 layups in the first quarter.

"We're an uptempo team now," said Maryknoll coach Kelly Grant. "We're playing two point guards on the floor, and then our three and four (positions) can also be point guards so we can have four point guards on the floor. We have good ball handling. We're hoping teams are going to press us more. If teams are going to press us, we're going to make them play and work hard."

The Spartans also spread the wealth as all 13 players that checked in registered a point. Jordyn Perez had 13 points, Kaulana Schmidt 12 and Kainoa Ferreira added 11 to round out Maryknoll's leading scorers.

"We're a pretty deep team that can go 11, 12, 13 guys deep," said Grant. "There's not much drop off from one to (13). They've bought into the team concept, they move the ball, play some good defense and box out."

Kiefer Edwards paced the Comets with a game-high 15 points.

Reach Michael Lasquero at [email protected].