ILH Boys Basketball
Damien marches past Saint Louis in ILH D1 tournament


  



Thu, Feb 6, 2020 @ Damien


Final 1 2 3 4  
Saint Louis (4-9, 5-15) 14 5161550
Damien (8-7, 18-16) 7 13 10 2454
T. Atonio 17 pts  2 3pm  9/10 FTs
A. Arquette 13 pts  3 3pm  2/2 FTs

KALIHI — No. 6 Damien got all it could handle from its Catholic rival in No. 8 Saint Louis to win, 54-50 in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I single-elimination postseason tournament at Bishop Scanlan Gymnasium Thursday.

Tino Atonio led the Monarchs with 17 points and shot 9 for 10 from the free throw line. Hayden Bayudan contributed 12 off the bench while Jake Holtz had 10 and Bryce Forbes with eight to round out the scoring.

"Tino's becoming a star in front of everybody's eyes. He plays one through five and he's showing Hawaii what he's about. His breakout game came against Trinity Prep with the number 1 point guard in the nation and they went head to head. He's playing off of the energy and he's our engine right now," Damien coach Alvin Stephenson said of Atonio.

"It was a good experience, we played with more team ball and camaraderie. We played our defense and our roles," Atonio said.

The Monarchs (7-6) advance to host Mid-Pacific (5-9) on Saturday Feb. 8 after the Owls upset No. 4 Punahou (7-6), 49-42 in overtime. The winner of that game claims the league's final state berth and faces No. 2 Maryknoll on Monday, Feb. 10.

The Crusaders end their season with a 4-9 record in the ILH.

"They're a really good team. They're tough," Stephenson said of the Crusaders.

Damien trailed by five entering the fourth quarter until Atonio cut the deficit down to one after Hayden Bayudan swung it his way for a 3-pointer and Forbes gave the Monarchs a brief lead before Jayden de Laura tied it up at 37. The game was knotted up at 39 until Aiva Arquette rattled in a 3-pointer.

"I just want to do anything I can for my team. That's my motto. They're everything to me and they're my family so I do whatever I can for them," said Atonio, who went 7 for 8 from the foul line in the fourth.

"We've been trying to be more disciplined on offense and not have guys go one on one a lot. Tonight these guys did that," Stephenson added.

Bayudan drew the blocking foul and got the bucket to fall to reclaim the lead with 3:43 remaining. Kalan Ellis put back his own miss to tie the game at 46, but would foul out later on. Arquette nailed a triple in the right corner after a steal and kick out to finish with 13 points.

"We had to value each possession and make sure we're taking good shots. Keep moving the ball, playing together and make the extra pass and play for each other," Stephenson said of the fourth quarter message to the team.

Isaac Silva, who had 12 points, made the first free throw to trail, 53-50, but didn't make contact with the rim as he tried to intentionally miss the second attempt, giving it back to Damien. Bayudan split the pair of free throws to ice the game with 4.2 seconds.

"I'm not surprised these guys can be resilient. We been there in big games and I think that California trip prepared us in any situation. We've grown to play with adversity and pull through in the end and execute our plays," Stephenson said.

"We wanted to execute our plays and play better defense because we started off slow. We wanted to execute and finish off the game," Atonio added.

The Monarchs shot 8 for 10 from the free throw line in the final 1 minute and 35 seconds and shot 22 for 25 (88 percent) overall, 15 for 17 in the final stanza.

Saint Louis closed out the first quarter on a 9-2 run to take a 14-7 lead going into the second quarter. Damien chipped away and tied the game at 16 on Bayudan's drive up the middle and he later hit a floater to give the Monarchs a 20-19 lead at halftime.

The Crusaders attacked the rim to lead and went up by five following Ellis' shot and later controlled the third quarter as Saint Louis went up by as much as eight off of Silva's floater. Holtz kicked it out to RJ Spencer in the right corner to hit a three before the buzzer sounded to make it a five point game.



Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].




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