Boys Basketball
Oak Hill rolls past Wasatch for Iolani Classic title


Brandon Ching | ScoringLive
December 22, 2019, 12:37am

  

Sat, Dec 21, 2019 @ Iolani

Oak Hill

76

Wasatch

68

Final 1 2 3 4  
Oak Hill 18 22221476
Wasatch 17 20 9 2268
Mike Saunders 22 pts  3 3pm  3/3 FTs
Cam Thomas 30 pts  1 3pm  13/15 FTs
Fousseyni Traore 11 tot  4 off  7 def
Cam Thomas 5 tot  5 def


Oak Hill (Mouth of Wilson, Virginia) led by three at halftime then broke open the game in the third quarter to beat Wasatch Academy (Mt. Pleasant, Utah), 76-68 to win their eighth-overall Iolani Classic title at the Father Bray Complex Saturday.

The Warriors ended a five year title drought thanks to LSU commit Cam Thomas (30 points, five boards), who averaged 31.8 points per game in the tournament and was named the Most Valuable Player.

"It was pretty good, it feels good to win a championship in our first actual tournament. I feel it was a great experience and I came out of Hawaii with a championship. It was great and I enjoyed being out here," Thomas said.

Oak Hill also got double digit contributions from Jamari Sibley (18) and K.K. Robinson (10). 

The Warriors led in the first quarter by as much as eight, but Wasatch cut it down to one after Richard Isaacs, Jr.'s 3-pointer, 18-17 heading into the second quarter.

Late in the second quarter, there were seven lead changes, but the Warriors clung onto a three point lead at halftime after Thomas made two out of three free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt.

"I think we bonded more as a team. During tough times, it helped us become tougher so that was great for us," Thomas said of the team bonding off the court.

Thomas had 15 points and was 8 for 11 from the free throw line at intermission and finished 13 of 15 (86.7 percent) as the Warriors led, 40-37.

Oak Hill opened the third quarter on a 8-2 run and dominated the quarter outscoring Wasatch 22-9 and was up, 16 heading into the fourth.

"It was about not letting up. We wanted to come out the first four minutes and dominate. That's what we did, we held them to nine points the whole quarter. We dominated the third quarter and that's why we won. Defense was what we prided ourselves on this game," Thomas said.

The Warriors led by as much as 18 in the fourth, but the Tigers trimmed it all the way down to eight in the waning seconds.

Mike Saunders, a University of Cincinnati commit, finished with a team-high 22 points for Wasatch, Isaacs Jr. poured in 19, and Fousseyni Traore had 14 points and 11 rebounds off the bench. 


Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].




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