Punahou's Dayson Watanabe drives to the basket against Mid-Pacific. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Punahou's Randon Oda puts up a shot against Mid-Pacific. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Mid-Pacific Daniel Florenco drives to the basket against Punahou. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Mid-Pacific's Kyle Husslein puts up a shot attempt against Punahou. Sylvia Lee | SL

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Punahou's Kalai Santos attempts to drive to the basket against Mid-Pacific. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Mon, Feb 10, 2014 @ Punahou

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Mid-Pacific

48

Punahou

57

Final	1	2	3	4
Mid-Pacific (1-10, 7-13)	9	17	10	12	48
Punahou (7-5, 22-5)	13	17	12	15	57

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

D. Andrews 14 pts  0/2 FTs

K. Husslein 16 pts  1 3pm  3/4 FTs

K. Noa 6 tot

D. Suehiro 5 tot

D. Watanabe 5 ast

K. Husslein 5 ast

In a must-win game of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I single elmination tournament, fourth-ranked Punahou held off a tenacious Mid-Pacific squad, 57-48.

The win helped the Buffanblu bounce back from two consecutive losses to Maryknoll and Iolani, as well as the loss of 6-foot-3 Ma'a in the Maryknoll game to an ankle injury.

"He's a key component to what we do and helps us get into our offense and also plays good defense for us. It's hard to adjust to when you've been playing one way the whole time and then we have to change all of a sudden. We've just been trying to find our chemistry without him," commented Punahou head coach Darren Matsuda about losing Ma'a.

Punahou jumped out early 7-0 on MPI and forced an early timeout with less than a minute expiring off the clock.

The Buffanblu's lead ballooned to 11-2 before the Owls went on a 7-2 run of their own to end the quarter and close the lead to 13-9 heading to the second period.

The second stanza was arguably the most exciting frame with both teams posting 17 points in the quarter, including three ties and two lead changes.

Mid-Pacific started the period with a 7-0 run before Punahou stormed back to tie the game at 22-all when senior guard/forward Daniel Andrews finished an easy lay in off a nice assist from junior guard Dayson Watanabe.

Andrews and Watanabe tied for the team's top scorer with 14 points.

"I think we came out a little sluggish, but give credit to Mid-Pac (Mid-Pacific) they came out firing, their offense and defense were great," remarked the 5-foot-8 Watanabe who had 5 assist and was 4-for-4 from the free throw line.

With game tied now at 24 with 22 seconds left 6-foot-1 guard/forward Kanawai Noa threw up a 3-pointer without running the clock down. As the junior, Noa, let the ball go you could hear the groans from the coaching staff and then a smirk from coach Matsuda as the ball found nylon.

The Owls came right down the court and dropped in a layup from senior guard/forward Kyle Husslein with seven seconds to go and before you could blink Punahou threw a half court heave from 5-foot-9 guard Randon Oda that banked off the backboard and counted to give the Buffanblu the 30-26 advantage at the half.

Out of the intermission, both teams continued their back-and-forth pace until the 5:16 mark where Punahou senior center Davis Miyashiro-Saipa'ia got tagged with a technical foul as he headed to the bench.

The Owls took advantage, as the 6-foot-2 Husslein hit both from the line to inch them closer to the 35-33 Buffanblu lead. Husslein then hit a 3-pointer that helped push the Owls into the lead 36-35 with 3:22 left in the third stanza.

Husslein finished as the game's leading scorer with 16 points and was a perfect 5-for-5 from inside the 3-point line.

Down the stretch Punahou tightened up their pressure defense and forced Mid-Pacific into 14 steals for the game and seemed to out hustle the Owls for the ball in the final 12 minutes.

"They said to keep doing what we're doing because our game plan was to make the other team tired," said Andrews about what was said at the half.

With the win the Buffanblu will look for some revenge against Iolani in the ILH Semifinals on Wednesday exactly one week from their loss last week to the Raiders.

"They're (Iolani) very disciplined and they're a very tough team so we got to bring our ‘A' game and we got to improve. It's kind of tough to say that (improving), near the end of the season, but that's the situation we're in right now we got to put our best foot forward and fight," remarked coach Matsuda about playing Iolani again.