Leif Fautanu (25) powered the Jr. 'Bows to the state tournament with a 15-point performance in the ILH second round tournament final. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Sat, Feb 16, 2019 @ Klum Gym

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Hawaii Baptist

38

University Lab

47

Final	1	2	3	4
Hawaii Baptist (8-6, 15-13)	10	8	8	12	38
University Lab (10-4, 14-12)	14	9	7	17	47

L. Fautanu 15 pts  3/5 FTs

R. Wada 12 pts  2 3pm  4/4 FTs

MANOA — Leif "LJ" Fautanu scored 11 of his game-high 15 points in the first half to help University Lab clinch its first state tournament berth in three years with a 47-38 win over visiting Hawaii Baptist in Interscholastic League of Honolulu boys basketball at Klum Gym Saturday afternoon.

The league's Division II single-elimination tournament final saw the Jr. ‘Bows (10-4 league, 14-10 overall) notch their fourth consecutive victory and bring the season to a close for the Eagles (8-6, 15-13).

University will join league champion Damien as the ILH's two representatives in next week's Snapple D2 State Championships. It is the school's first appearance since 2016, when it also finished second in league (behind Saint Francis), but went on to win the state title.

"This is huge," second-year coach Ryan Tong said. "It's been an emotional ride all year long because we've had some adversity — guys going down with injuries, we had a death in the family, just whatever you can think of we've experienced it — but these boys were resilient."

Recent history has taught Tong to savor this achievement.

"I'm just proud to be a part of this team," said Tong, a 1990 graduate of the charter school. "I'm proud to be the coach of them and I told them, ‘be proud of it because the last two years we had really, really good teams — state-worthy teams that weren't able to make it to the state tournament' — so they should be proud of their efforts all year long."

After opening the league season by winning six of their first seven games, the Jr. ‘Bows dropped three straight — including a 52-48 defeat at home against HBA on Jan. 19.

The difference Saturday?

"We had LJ back and he's our best player. In my opinion, he's the best center in the state and we rely a lot (on him)," Tong said. "I think for us, again just preaching discipline, patience, and we let them come to us and I think that's what made the difference; We really slowed the game down this time around."

Fautanu made his presence felt early Saturday. He had nine points by the end of the first quarter, including a 3-point play to tie it at 10.

University took the lead for good at 12-10 with less than a minute left in the opening stanza on a basket underneath by Josh Awai, off a nifty assist from Ryder Rebibis.

The Jr. ‘Bows turned it into an 8-0 run after a pair of cutbacks by Fautanu and Rebibis, followed by an Awai runner in the lane to make it an 18-10 lead with 5:34 to play in the first half.

"That was huge. Any time we can go up on a team like that and establish some kind of a cushion, that's good, because the last two times we had to dig ourselves out of a hole," said Tong, whose team came away with a 72-53 win at HBA on Dec. 18.

"The first time we played them, I think we were down by 12 (points) or something like that — double digits at halftime — the second time we played them here we were down by 14, so any time you can get a good lead on them, then you can be even more patient on offense," Tong said.

The Eagles pulled to within 21-18 after a Justin Ishida 3-pointer with about a minute left in the quarter. After a University miss on the other end, HBA looked to hold for the last shot. However, Jake Flores came up with a key steal for the Jr. ‘Bows, which allowed Awai to draw a foul in transition and sink the ensuing free throws to stretch it to a 23-18 lead just before the intermission.

"We said before the game, not just being patient on offense, but we said it's going to come down to defensive stops and that's something that we pride ourselves on is defensive intensity, you know, really going after it, so that was huge for us," Tong said.

HBA chipped away at the University lead late in the third quarter and early in the fourth. Adam Kikuta drained a straightaway 3-pointer about a minute into the final period to cut it to 32-29. Fautanu answered with a putback for the Jr. ‘Bows, but Ridge Wada hit a trey from the left wing and was fouled. He made the free throw to convert the four-point play and get the Eagles within a point at 34-33 with 5:22 left to play.

Tong called a timeout soon after to regroup his squad.  

"I wanted us to just kind of settle down. I could see the guys, you know, they were rushing and so I wanted to just draw something up and then more importantly, just kind of calm them down. I wanted to call a timeout, ease the tension and get these guys refocused," Tong said.

The Eagles remained within a possession of the Jr. ‘Bows after Kikuta hit a runner to make it 38-35 with 1:48 remaining.

However, University went on an 8-0 run to stretch it back to a 46-35 advantage with 35.8 seconds to play. It made 9 of its final 14 attempts from the free-throw line.

"I don't know what the free-throw percentage is for us (for the season), but that's an area that we've been focusing on in practice," Tong said. "I think yesterday I made them shoot a hundred free throws, so it'll come down to that: defensive stops and making free throws."

HBA made just two field goals in the final five-plus minutes. Fautanu said it was a matter of taking care of the ball.

"That came down to a one-possession game, so I think that valuing each possession was really huge because HBA has really good shooters — all five of them can shoot the ball if they have to — and so each possession is very valuable due to the fact that they can change the lead any time they want," said Fautanu, a 6-foot-3 center.

The Jr. ‘Bows grabbed 22 offensive rebounds, which led to 24 second-chance points.

Awai finished with 10 points and Rebibis nine for University, which shot 20 of 31 from the free-throw line.

Wada scored a team-high 12 points for HBA. Justin Ishida chipped in with nine points — all on 3-pointers — and Max Wiemken had nine in the loss. Wiemken entered the game averaging 20.7 points per game. The Eagles were held 14 points below their season average (52.5 ppg.).

"I think holding Max (to nine points) was a big accomplishment for us, because our main concern was Max because he could go off for 30 (points) any night, so I think locking him up defensively was really good," Fautanu said.

HBA was seeking its first state tournament berth since the 2014-'15 season.