Oregon City edges host Iolani, 56-54

CJ Caraang | SL

Host Iolani gave Oregon City all it could handle, but ultimately came up just a bit short, falling to the Pioneers, 56-54, in the opening round of the Iolani Girls Prep Classic.

"We've been here a couple times in the past and Iolani is a great program. I think we're (Oregon City and Iolani) both probably in the same spot, we're solid little teams with some weaknesses here and there," said Oregon City head coach Kurt Guelsdorf. "We tried to take lead, and they took it back, and when it came to down the end it was probably well deserved that it came down to that last play."

Three players finished with double digit point totals for the Pioneers, led by Kylie Guelsdorf's 14. Brooke Bullock chipped in 13 and Kaari Guelsdorf added 12, including three three-pointers.

"We'd like to better inside, but we're still a little young and inexperienced there. Our strength really is our guards, we tried to post up some of our guards and that seemed to do pretty good inside," said Guelsdorf. "We're just trying to find ways to score."

Oregon City led by as many as 11 in the first half, but Iolani clawed back each time the Pioneers looked to pull away.

"Even when we went 11 down at one point, we stayed in the game," said Iolani head coach Dean Young. "We kept fighting back, fighting back, fighting back, and brought it to a one-possession game."

"It was a young group, three freshman on the court, so they definitely did some growing up today," Young added.

Lily Lefotu Wahinekapu's layup with 1:08 left to play brought the Raiders to within a point, but the Raiders would not got any closer.

"Really good player," said Guelsdorf on Wahinekapu. "We circled 10 and 23 at halftime and tried to adjust the best we could."

Riley Schedler's layup with just over 5 seconds to play put the Pioneers up 56-53, but Wahinekapu was fouled with 2.3 seconds to go, giving the Raiders one final opportunity.

Wahinekapu made the first free throw to make it a two point game, before missing the second shot from the charity stripe intentionally to try and set up a potential game-tying or winning shot. The miss was tapped out of bounds by an Iolani player with 0.9 left, and Oregon City inbounded the ball on the final possession to end it.

Freshman accounted for 31 of the Raiders 54 points in the contest, with 20 of those coming from Wahinekapu.

Fellow frosh Alexsandra Huntimer notched 8 points and senior Kellie Okamura added 12 for the Raiders, who also got 7 from Tori Lynn Maeda in the loss.

With the win, Oregon City advanced into semifinals where they will face Centennial, a 58-36 winner over Naha Senior from Okinawa. The Pioneers won the 2012 Iolani Prep Classic title in their last trip to Honolulu, and are making their fourth appearance overall.

"We went to California and kind of took our lumps there last week, so we're just excited to play on game at a time," remarked Guelsdorf. "We're thankful to Nike and these folks (at Iolani) for letting us come over. I remember Glenn Young from way back and I feel pretty good whenever we get that call about being able to come here."