Saint Louis forward Aiva Arquette goes up for a shot while surrounded by a trio of Iolani defenders. The 6-foot-4 senior accounted for 10 of the Crusaders' 19 fourth-quarter points in a 44-37 win over the Raiders Thursday night. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Thu, Jan 27, 2022 @ Iolani

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Saint Louis

44

Iolani

37

Final	1	2	3	4
Saint Louis (11-2, 20-2)	12	8	5	19	44
Iolani (10-4, 16-7)	4	9	12	12	37

J. Jones 12 pts  2 3pm

A. Arquette 19 pts  1 3pm

ALA WAI — Aiva Arquette scored 10 of his game-high 19 points in the fourth quarter to lead No. 1 Saint Louis to a 44-37 win over fifth-ranked Iolani in an Interscholastic League of Honolulu boys basketball game Thursday night. 

The Crusaders (6-1) notched their third consecutive victory to maintain sole possession of first place atop the ILH Division I standings, while the Raiders (3-3) were dealt their first loss in three games. 

Arquette, a 6-foot-4 senior forward, took over the contest in the final stanza, when he accounted for nearly half (10) of his team's 19 fourth-quarter points. He made all six of his free throws attempts — all of them in the final two minutes and 29 seconds of the game — but impacted the game with more than just his scoring. Arquette grabbed a number of key rebounds on both ends of the floor and also drew a couple of charges on defense. 

"He's just a phenomenal player," Saint Louis coach Dan Hale said of Arquette, who is signed to play baseball at the University of Washington next year. 

"It's all about the team for him, he'll do what it takes to propel us and he's a real pleasure to coach, for sure," Hale added. 

Arquette's only 3-pointer of the game gave his team a 20-9 lead — its largest of the night — with 2:53 left in the first half. However, Iolani got it to 20-13 by halftime and eventually pulled even at 22 on a Bailey Bumanglag bucket at the 2:02 mark of the third quarter. 

On the Raiders' very next offensive possession, Bumanglag drained a triple from the left corner off an assist from Zacary Tenn to give the hosts their only lead. It was short lived, however, as Kache Kaio splashed a 3-pointer of his own just before the end of the third quarter to send it into the final period tied at 25. 

Another Bumanglag 3-pointer kept Iolani within a point of Saint Louis at 33-32 with 2:52 left in the game, but Arquette made it a three-point game after he made a pair of free throws and Hayden Bayudan stretched it to a 37-32 lead for the visitors with his backdoor layup at the 1:43 mark. 

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JJ Mandaquit's layup on Iolani's ensuing trip down the floor kept it at a one-possession game at 37-34, but Saint Louis closed out the contest with a 7-3 run. 

"They started hitting some shots and guys started stepping up for them," Hale said of the Raiders, who scored 24 of their points after halftime. 

He added, "They were driving, they were making the plays that they needed to make and then we missed a few shots that were point blank and, you know, a game like that can turn like that and I was just proud of the guys for hanging in there."

Arquette said he and his teammates expected a lot of fight from Iolani, which was without sophomore guard Aaron Claytor (10.6 ppg) for Thursday's game. 

"On our end we just had to keep our composure and just keep fighting. We knew it wasn't going to be an easy game. We knew they were gonna come out strong," Arquette said. "They lost a big piece this game, but we just had to battle the whole game and I felt like we did that."

Bumanglag and Jack Jones paced the Raiders with 12 points apiece, while Mandaquit tallied nine in the loss. 

It was the second time Saint Louis defeated Iolani in a span of eight days. It came away with a 47-39 win in the first meeting, which took place on Jan. 18 at the Crusaders' Clarence T.C. Ching Athletic Center. 

Thursday night's rematch wasn't all that different in terms of the final score, but the pace of the game was in stark contrast to the prior contest. 

"This was just an old-fashioned, coming-at-you, defensive, grind-it-out type of game," Hale remarked "I mean, they didn't have Aaron out there so other guys stepped up big time and we knew that we had to try and get this into a defensive game and that was really kind of the goal. The other game was a little bit more up and down; this game was just half court against half court."

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Bayudan, a senior point guard, had four of his nine points in the fourth quarter. 

The Crusaders shot 11 of 14 from the charity stripe in the final eight minutes. They opened the game with a 9-0 run that included a couple of free throws by Bayudan in lieu of the opening tip as a result of a technical foul on an Iolani player for hanging on the rim during pre-game warmups. 

Saint Louis held the Raiders scoreless for an eight-minute stretch over the first and second quarters and forced them into eight first-half turnovers. 

"We were just flying around on defense because they have some great shooters on their team and they can get hot real fast so we just had to keep them quiet for a little bit," Arquette said. 

Hale noted that stingy man-to-man defense is part of his team's identity this winter. 

"I mean, we put up some points every now and then, but really the crux of this team is the defense and we spend a lot of time on it in practice and we talk about it a lot and it showed tonight," he said. "We just kept coming at ‘em and to their credit, they were able to do it."

Hale credited the duo of Arquette and Bayudan — two of the team's seven seniors — for coming up clutch down the stretch Thursday. 

"We got a nice start and then I told them that they're gonna have to weather the storm — I mean, they're not gonna let us just walk away with it in their gym — and sure enough they came all the way back," Hale said. "But then, from there my seniors stepped up and hit some big free throws and grabbed some key rebounds and that was the difference."

Iolani, which was coming off of a 48-45 win over Punahou Tuesday, was held to a season-low scoring output by the Crusaders Thursday. 

"That was kind of an old school-ILH type of game right there with both teams going at it and we were lucky we came out on top, but you know, it just reminded me of the days of old, with teams going at it half court, D-ing up, yeah, it was definitely one of those throwback-type games," Hale said. 

The Raiders will look to rebound when travel to Mid-Pacific (1-4) for a Saturday contest set for 11:30 a.m. 

Saint Louis has a bye next before it hosts the Owls Thursday.