Zach Buscher connected on all of his free throw attempts in the fourth quarter to help the Iolani Raiders (2-1) hold of a furious Kamehameha Warriors (2-1) comeback, 42-39.  Buscher led all scorers with 13 points.

"The team needs me to take care of the ball," said Buscher. "It came down to where they had to make some fouls and I just had to hit free throw shots and that was the difference in the ballgame."

The opening quarter of the game was a defensive struggle. Kamehameha committed five turnovers in the period while Iolani had to settle for tough shots.
 
"We were just trying to play solid defense," asserted Iolani Head Coach Dean Shimamoto. "If the turnovers came they came, we weren't gambling too much."

The Warriors played a lot of trap defense to pressure the Iolani guards.

"That's how we always play," stated Kamehameha Head Coach Julian Nakanishi. "Up tempo, we're trying to create opportunities through our defense. We're not a sit-back, play half-court offense kind of team; we try to get offense through our D."

Marc Ma scored four points in the quarter to help give the Raiders a 7-3 lead.

While the first quarter was a low scoring-affair, the second quarter was the complete opposite.

Makoa Camanse-Stevens jumper briefly tied the game up at nine a piece before the Raiders rattled six straight to give Iolani a 15-9 lead. That Raider mini-run was highlighted by Reece Foy's 3-point play as Foy was fouled on his lay-up attempt.

Freshman Noah Sua-Godinet stopped that Iolani run with an impressive move of his own. From the triple-threat position at the wing, Sua-Godinet drove all the way to the rim finishing with a reverse lay-up.

Iolani finished the first half strong with Foy's put back jumper at the buzzer gave the Raiders a 22-14 heading into halftime.

Kamehameha came out of the locker room on fire as they opened up the third quarter with a 12-3 run. Kason Smith-Bejgrowicz converted on a 3-point play to tie things up and a Camanse-Stevens free throw gave the Warriors a 27-26 lead.

That lead was short-lived however as Iolani close the period with a 4-0 run. Iolani led 29-26, after three quarters of play.

The fourth quarter is best described as the quarter of free throws as both teams combined for a total of 28 attempts at the charity-stripe. Both teams played stiff defense and made their opponents earn their points at the line.

Things were relatively quiet in the first four minutes in the fourth quarter until Kamehameha Head Coach Julian Nakanishi was whistled for a technical foul with 3:52 remaining in the game. Warriors' F Kody Chai appeared to be fouled on his shot attempt but the referees let it go and Nakanishi took exception to the call.

"That's on me, said. "I thought it was a blatant foul and to have that as a no call, I felt hurt our team. But I got to keep a calm head over there."

Including the technical free throws, Buscher hit four free throws in a row to give Iolani a convincing 39-28 lead with under two minutes remaining.

Kamehameha struck back quickly scoring six straight in less than five seconds. Noa Kinimaka hit a trey at the 1:44 mark for the first field goal of the quarter and Austin Gerard's steal netted a three point play to trim the deficit to three.

To add to the late-game drama, Raider's Buscher fouled out with 52.5 seconds to go in the game. Buscher was a perfect 8 for 8 from the line before fouling out.
 
With Buscher out of the game, the door was open for Kamehameha to play the quick foul game. The Warriors wisely fouled Drew Uchiyama to send him to the free throw line on consecutive attempts. Despite being Iolani's second leading scorer, Uchiyama was 0 for 4 from the line in the first half. Uchiyama only made one free throw attempt out of four in the fourth quarter to give Iolani a 40-36, two-possession lead.

Iolani's Foy fouled out on a costly foul as it sent Kamehameha's Gerard to the line for three free throw attempts with 14.6 remaining in the game. However, Gerard would only connect on one of those free throw attempts and the Iolani Raiders would hold on for the 42-39 victory.

"We needed it," remarked Shimamoto. "We had two tough games; we had a loss to Maryknoll and we had a really tough game against St. Louis so it was great to come in here, which is not an easy place to play, and get a win."