Master's Academy's Brooks Cluxton battles Kaiser's Kamu Scheer in the paint. Cluxton scored 11 points and added 12 rebounds in a win over the Cougars. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Fri, Dec 18, 2015 @ Iolani

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Masters Academy

71

Kaiser

51

Final	1	2	3	4
Masters Academy	14	24	17	16	71
Kaiser (12-2, 28-7)	10	16	16	9	51

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

C. Kalaugher 25 pts  2 3pm  3/5 FTs

J. Bonner 24 pts  8/10 FTs

C. Kalaugher 8 tot  4 off  4 def

J. Bonner 12 tot  2 off  10 def

K. Mahiko 4 ast

T. Rubio 4 ast

Master's Academy (Oviedo, Fla.) saw four players score in double figures in its 71-51 opening round win over Kaiser in the 32nd annual Iolani Boys Prep Classic Friday night. 

The Eagles combined a swarming zone defense with an up-tempo transition offense to hand the Cougars (8-1) their first loss of the year.

"This was a perfect learning experience for us," said Kaiser coach Branden Kawazoe, whose team won the Division II state title a season ago. "We always talk about the little things in the game; taking care of the ball, coming to meet passes, things like that. Against a team like (Master's Academy), if you're not doing the little things you're going to get exposed."

Jakobi Bonner led the Eagles' scoring effort with 24 points with 12 rebounds. Also with a double-double for Master's Academy was 6-foot-7 junior Brooks Cluxton, who had 11 points and 12 rebound with four blocks. Tanner Rubio added 16 points and seven assists and Cole Thomas chipped in 13 points to round out the Eagles in double figures. 

"For the most part that's how it's been this year for us," said Master's Academy coach Reggie Kohn. "We have a couple of different guys can score the ball. It was a good effort and I'm proud of our guys tonight." 

The Cougars had trouble against the Eagles' zone defense with Bonner and Cluxton defending the paint, converting on just a third of their field goal attempts (20 of 60). 

"They played a very good zone against us," said Kawazoe. "When there's no penetration into the zone, you're going to end up settling for jumper and 3-pointers. We didn't do a very good job of getting into the high post, middle post and short corner. They just took us out of everything we want to do." 

The duo of Bonner and Cluxton also gave Kaiser's Chance Kalaugher, the 2015 ScoringLive All-Hawaii Division II Player of the Year, an opportunity to go up against tough interior defenders. Kalaugher scored 25 points in the loss, the most of any player in the eight first round contests, but needed 24 shot attempts to get there.

"I think the good thing playing against those two big guys was that it taught Chance that he has to get a little more crafty and he can't settle for turnaround jumpers," said Kawazoe. "He's going to have to use his footwork, his pump fake, step through and jab. It's just good though to play against solid fundamental teams." 

Kaiser held an early 8-3 lead in the contest, but gave up an 11-2 run to end the first quarter and trailed 14-10 heading into the second. With momentum on their side, the Eagles would go on to outscore the Cougars in every period to turn a close game into a 20-point victory. 

The Cougars never gave up offensively in the matchup, but was caught napping on several occasions on transition defense. Whenever Kaiser would get a basket to cut the deficit, Master's Academy was going the other way for a quick basket on the fast break. 

"We try to have fun and play and just up up and down the court," said Kohn. "We don't want to hold the basketball. We just want to play an up-tempo game and tonight we had some success at it." 

Master's Academy took its first double-digit lead of the game, 24-14, after a fast break corner trey from Thomas midway through the second quarter and held a 38-26 advantage at halftime. 

The Eagles took their largest lead of the game, 51-35, on Cluxton's three-point play with 1:44 to go in the third quarter.

Kaiser kept clawing its way back into the contest, but could never cut the deficit to less than 10 points in the second half.

Master's Academy moves on to face La Lumiere (La Porte, Ind.), the third-ranked team in the latest USA Today Super 25 national rankings, in a 6:30 p.m. quarterfinal Saturday.

"They're a great basketball team," Kohn said on La Lumiere. "They have a lot of good basketball players and a lot of size. We just have to come out the best we can and make a couple of shots."