Moanalua's Kahanu Pu'ulei-Auld puts up a jumper over Iolani's Zach Buscher. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Iolani's Marc Ma battles a trio of Moanalua players for the basketball. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Thu, Dec 13, 2012 @ Moanalua

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Iolani

56

Moanalua

51

Final	1	2	3	4
Iolani (6-6, 13-9)	12	15	12	17	56
Moanalua (12-2, 20-10)	11	15	13	12	51

E. Donley 16 pts  5/6 FTs

M. Ma 12 pts  2/4 FTs

Until its perimeter shooting gets consistent, 'Iolani knows it can get help underneath.

Marc Ma scored eight of his team-high 12 points in the second half, four off offensive rebounds, and the Raiders beat host Moanalua, 56-51, Thursday in the Na Menehune OIA/ILH Challenge at Moanalua High's gym.

The three-day event is not in a tournament format. Instead, each game pits an Interscholastic League of Honolulu team against an O'ahu Interscholastic Association team. Moanalua plays Kamehameha Friday and Maryknoll Saturday.

The 6-foot-2 Ma muscled in on Moanalua to open the second half, padding 'Iolani's one-point half-time lead with two put-back baskets.

"Marc just plays so hard," 'Iolani coach Dean Shimamoto said. "He's a physical guy. He just goes after the boards like there's no tomorrow. You could see the result of that. We're really happy to have him on our team."

Zach Buscher added 11 points, mostly on 8-of-10 free-throwing shooting for the Raiders.

Eliet Donley paced Na Menehune with a game-high 16 points with Kahana Pu'ulei-Auld following with 11 points.

Five of Moanalua's seven preseason games to date have been against ILH competition; this was its first loss.

The Raiders labored from the field, missing from everywhere on the perimeter. Shimamoto said it was a continuation from last week, when the Raiders shot 12 of 57 from the field against Mililani and 15 of 56 against their Division II team, yet still beating both to win the Kailua tournament.

"So the first half looked pretty familiar to us," Shimamoto said.

But the Raiders were able to make up for their early errant shooting by getting crucial offensive boards, not just from missed field goals, but also from missed free throws.

With the game tied at 46, Ma came up with a rebound when Ikaika Phillip missed the back-end of a one-and-one. The Raiders missed yet another shot from the field, only to have 5-8 guard John Lee scored off a rebound to give Moanalua a 48-46 lead.

"They got a lot of extra possessions on long rebounds, off free throws, too," Moanalua coach Greg Tacon said. "That kept them in it because they probably didn't shoot the ball that well. You give them extra possessions, that stuff happens."

The Raiders never looked back after Lee's shot. Buscher's 3-pointer widened 'Iolani's lead to 51-46 with 1:51 left in the game, forcing Moanalua to foul to gain possessions. 'Iolani got its last five points of the game from 5-of-10 free-throw shooting.

Moanalua pulled to within three with 31 seconds left on Ola Brown's 3-pointer.

If anything, Na Menehune, who had their six-game win streak snapped, got to work on their catch-up game.

"There was an end-of-the game situation where we had to chase and try to get back into it so there were some teachable moments," Tacon said. "We hit that 3 to get that timeout, that was cool. But everything we did up to that point put us in that hole."

As for the Raiders, who will face some nationally ranked competition next week at its annual 'Iolani Classic, Shimamoto feels his shooters will eventually find their range.

"We only get about an hour and a half to practice every day, so we don't get a lot of time to practice to get reps in shooting," he said. "We put our stuff in and hope over the course of the season, we'll get more time to get our shots in. I'm confident our guys will be fine shooters by the end of this."