John Lujan | Special to SL

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Iolani's Robby Mann scored a game-high 22 points in a win over Punahou. John Lujan | Special to SL

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Sat, Feb 13, 2016 @ Iolani

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Punahou

48

Iolani

56

Final	1	2	3	4
Punahou (9-6, 27-9)	14	7	11	16	48
Iolani (9-5, 19-9)	13	12	16	15	56

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

R. Mann 22 pts  3 3pm  3/4 FTs

A. Troske 11 pts  1 3pm  0/0 FTs

H. Hogland 9 tot  2 off  7 def

A. Troske 5 tot  1 off  4 def

H. Hogland 3 ast

C. Arceneaux 3 ast

Robby Mann and Hugh Hogland combine for 38 points as No. 2 Iolani (9-5 ILH) took down No. 4 Punahou (9-6 ILH), 56-48 to win the Interscholastic League of Honolulu title—their fifteenth overall and also claim the league's seeded berth for next week's Hawaii High School Athletic Association/OC16 Boys Basketball State Championships starting on Wednesday.

"We're going into the home stretch and we want to play our best basketball. The extra day without a game gave us an opportunity to rest and refocus. We put that focus coming out and attacking and what we call "championship basketball" going into the state tournament," said Shimamoto.

The Buffanblu started 1-4 in the ILH season, but were red-hot winning eight of their final nine games to get to this point.

"Tonight it didn't work out for us, but I thought my kids gave their best effort and that's all we can ask for," said Punahou coach Darren Matsuda.

The Raiders lost to Kamehameha on Feb. 10, 43-38, but it was a chance for them to regroup and refocus.

Punahou led 14-13 after the first quarter—which turned out to be their only lead of the game, but from there it was all Iolani. The Raiders came back going on a 9-2 run to start the second quarter.

"They are hard to beat if they are running on all cylinders. Tonight was their night and they looked good," said Matsuda.

The Raiders worked the ball around efficiently for the last shot, Hogland hit Nick Kennedy in the corner and he drained the 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded giving Iolani a 25-21 lead at halftime.

"Getting him the ball into the post, he's a real threat and everyone goes down into the key and they need to help and he's so tall he looks over everyone he passes the ball to the open man. If we're hitting 3's, we're going to have a good game," said Mann, on Hogland.

Mann found ways to create his own shot and attacked the basket to score 10 of his 22 in the quarter. Hogland scored 16 points and also blocked four shots.

"Hugh was attacking the block. Robby was attacking inside and outside, getting on the break. We wanted to get Hugh touches and not only is he able to score, when he gets doubled, he makes great decisions," said Shimamoto.

Punahou had no free throw attempts in the first half—they had two attempts all game.

Iolani worked the ball into Hogland in the post and he was able to find teammates for open shots. He threw it to Mann, who hit one of his two triples. Hogland hit a pair of free throws to put, Iolani up 10, 34-24. Mann and Hunter Hosoda traded 3's as Iolani took a 41-32 lead into the fourth.

"They are a tough defensive team and if they are flowing on offense, they are tough to beat. If Robby Mann is hitting shots with hands in his face. You have to shake your head and say, ‘Man it might be their night tonight,'" said Matsuda.

"I was trying to create my own shots and Hugh was setting good screens for all of us. In the end I just started to feel it, I was letting it fly and not think about it as much," said Mann, who scored 22 points.

The Raiders went up by as much as 14 after a pair of Hogland free throws— he shot 8-for-9 for the game. Punahou had an opportunity to catch up after Gelacio and Helam Baldomero missed one-and-one free throw attempts with over 3 minutes left. Chris Kobayashi hit a 3-pointer and Punahou called a full timeout at the 2:40 mark as the Buffanblu trailed, 48-42.

Akahi Troske, who led the team with 11 points, and Cole Arceneaux hit 3-pointers down the stretch, but could not get closer than seven as Iolani closed out the final two minutes from the free throw line going 7-for-10 and shot 21-for-30 (70 percent) for the game.

"This team has been resilient. Every loss we had, we got better. Every time we failed, they taken it as a challenge. What you saw tonight was the end product of a lot of hard work, failure, fixes and I think we still want to get better for the state tournament," said Shimamoto.