Baldwin's Taje Akaka puts up a shot over a McKinley defender. Akaka scored 12 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the Bears' opening round win over the Tigers. Steve Erler | SL

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Baldwin's Taje Akaka puts up a shot over a McKinley defender. Akaka scored 12 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the Bears' opening round win over the Tigers. Steve Erler | SL

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Baldwin held off McKinley, 43-40 in the final seconds to advance past the first round of the OC16/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Boys Division I State Basketball Championships at McKinley's Student Council Gymnasium.

The Bears, who were the designated home team, advance to play top-seeded and No. 1 Iolani at 7 p.m. The Tigers play Kailua at 3 p.m. Both games will be at McKinley.

"We have to play our hardest and if it's not enough, as long as we play hard a be competitive, that's all we can ask for," said Baldwin coach Wayne Gushiken.

Chayse Akaka led the Bears with 13 points and his brother Jonovan-Taje Akaka added 12, 10 rebounds and four assists.

McKinley got the ball back with 6.0 seconds at the baseline after forcing the Bears to turn it over. Kyle Moraga had a 3-point look near the left wing, but it was no good as Baldwin held on for the victory.

"The last shot was for Dan, but they overplayed and they knew we were coming back. At the time we didn't have a timeout and call an inbounds play. More importantly we didn't finish plays and give credit to Baldwin, we didn't get back on defense," said McKinley coach Duane Omori.

"They did a good job coming back and they are a dangerous team. Good thing we were able to pull one out. In the preseason and this year, we were on the short end more often than not," said Gushiken.

Size and skill wise, both teams matched up fairly well on court.

"We were happy with the matchup and Baldwin is always disciplined, they rebounded better than us," said Omori.

"Size wise, we were happy to get McKinley, we matched up better than other teams," said Gushiken.

The Bears led by eight before the Tigers made back-to-back 3's. Conor Kurosaki made two foul shots to make it 39-34. Akaka added two more free throws, but Abdel-Jawad scored the next four points— he had a putback with 20.8 seconds as McKinley trailed, 41-38.

"They shot pretty good in the fourth quarter in the end. They slowed the game down in the first quarter. In the second half, we tried to up the tempo and it helped," said Gushiken.

Braydon-Mitchell Kalama made a pair of free throws to make it, 43-38 with 18.7 seconds left. The Tigers had some looks near the key, but could not convert. Moraga was fouled and made both of his free throws.

Baldwin led, 14-13 at halftime.

Both teams were dreadful from the field in the first half— Baldwin shot 6 of 20 (30.0 percent) while McKinley shot 4 of 19 (21.1 percent). The Bears finished 17 of 37 (45.9 percent) from the field while the Tigers were 11 of 43 (25.6 percent).

Abdel-Jawad led the Tigers with 16 points and seven rebounds. Jeremy Coloyan added nine and Moraga added eight points.