Spartans outlast Buffanblu to win ILH title

Maryknoll's Marcus Tobin puts down a two-handed slam over Punahou's Kaulana Makaula in the fourth quarter. John Lujan | SL

Maryknoll wasn't going to waste its second chance.

The Spartans built a 12-point halftime lead and held off a late Punahou surge to beat the Buffanblu, 57-52, in a winner-take-all playoff for the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I title Wednesday night before a capacity crowd of 700 fans at the Alfred Wong Court at Clarence T.C. Ching Gymnasium.

Four players scored in double figures for the top-ranked Spartans as they captured their ninth league crown in Maryknoll's first ILH D1 championship win since 2013.

"This is unbelievable," said senior guard Jordyn Perez, who scored 11 points. "We've been dreaming about this since we were kids. This is like our best win ever."

Maryknoll, the ILH D1 first round winner, had a chance to win the league crown on Monday against Punahou, but suffered a slow start and never recovered from a 39-18 halftime deficit.

Wednesday was a different story.

The Spartans scored the first eight points and never looked back as they flipped the script to take a 23-11 lead at the break in the fourth meeting between the two teams this season.

"They killed us last game so we came with the mentality that this is our gym," said Perez.

It was also the first time that the home team won a game in the season series between the two teams.

"We got to protect our house," added Perez. "This is our last game on our home court as seniors, we have to defend home court."

Defense ultimately was the difference in Maryknoll's first half surge. Punahou shot 4-for-23 in the first 16 minutes of play and trailed by as many as 15 points in the second quarter.

"When they (the Buffanblu) play good defense, the last time (on Monday) that equates to a lot of fast breaks and so forth (for them)," said Maryknoll coach Kelly Grant. When we played good defense like we did in that first half, we were getting a lot of breaks, a lot of looks at the basket."

"They came out hot and we couldn't really hit," added Punahou coach Darren Matsuda. "We were in a lull, we were in a little slump and we couldn't get ourselves out of it until the second half."

Still, Punahou wasn't going to go down that easy.

A 13-2 third quarter run capped by Zayne Chong's corner trey made it a 32-31 contest with 1:28 to play in the period, forcing a Maryknoll timeout.

Reach Michael Lasquero at [email protected].