With a suffocating defense and balanced offensive attack, Kamehameha held off 'Iolani, 50-38, last night to knock the Raiders out of first place in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu boys basketball standings.

Punahou, which pulled away from Academy of the Pacific, 53-40, now leads the ILH with a 5-1 record. Kamehameha is a half-game back at 4-1 and 'Iolani falls into a tie for third with AOP at 3-1.

The Raiders had squeaked out a 41-40 victory over the Warriors on Dec. 23, but last night 'Iolani struggled to break free from Kamehameha's relentless full and halfcourt pressure.

"Our defensive pressure was huge -- that and our defensive rebounding," said Micah Christenson, the Warriors' standout senior forward who finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks and two steals. "Last time, they were getting a lot of putbacks and other layups, so tonight we had to step up our defense, and especially our rebounding."

The game started as a defensive struggle on both sides, with Josiah Sukumaran breaking a scoreless tie over four minutes into it on a short baseline jumper in traffic. Reid Saito's 3-pointer made it 5-0 with 2:52 remaining in the first period, but Kamehameha ended the quarter with nine straight points capped by Christenson's three-point play after a steal.

Adam Ching opened the second period with a 3-pointer to close it to 9-8, but Frank Ho scored off a steal a minute later to start the Warriors on a 13-2 run that ended with Dyrbe Enos' two free throws with 2:24 left in the half. Enos later hit a short baseline jumper at the horn to put Kamehameha up, 26-13, at the break.

"That was the best defensive effort I've ever been a part of as a player or coach -- to hold that offense to 13 points is unheard of," said Warriors coach Jesse Nakanishi, who is not known for hyperbole. "We just mixed it up with traps in certain areas, we wanted to not let them run their offense."

Kamehameha maintained the lead in the third quarter, then stretched it to 41-24 on Makoa Camanse-Stevens' 3-pointer with 6:40 remaining in the game. The Raiders cut it to 43-34 on Sukumaran's free throw with 1:17 left, but could get no closer.

"It was about the same amount of (defensive) pressure as last time, we knew it was coming," 'Iolani coach Dean Shimamoto said. "But this time we couldn't break through and we struggled to find anything on offense."

Camanse-Stevens added 10 points for the Warriors, who had nine different players in the scoring column. Ching led the Raiders with 11 points, including three 3-pointers.

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