A near-capacity crowd of about 900 watched the Raiders win their third ILH title in four years and ninth in the past 11 seasons. They finished the regular season at 13-1, one game ahead of second-place Kamehameha (12-2), and earned the league's top seed and first-round bye in the Hawaiian Airlines/Hawai'i High School Athletic Association State Championships Feb. 16-19.

Kamehameha also earned a state tournament berth and will begin play in the first round Feb. 16.

Third-place Punahou (10-4) and fourth-place AOP (9-5) will join Mid-Pacific (6-8), Saint Louis (3-11), Maryknoll and Damien in the ILH's postseason tournament this coming week to determine the league's third and final state berth.

If 'Iolani lost  last night, they would have had to face Kamehameha in a one game, winner-take-all playoff for the ILH championship.

"The most important thing is this gives us a rest," said Raiders senior guard Trevyn Tulonghari, a four-year letterman who has been to the state tournament every season. "Fatigue is a big part of it, but we'll be mentally strong."

Four of 'Iolani's victories have come by five points or less, including a 49-44 overtime win over AOP on Jan. 25 and tonight's squeaker at home.

"When you have that many good teams in our league, you have to win the close games and fortunately, we've been on the good side of those," Raiders coach Dean Shimamoto said. "It's only fitting that we won another close one on defense again."

The Dolphins came inches away from sending into overtime, when Michael Dunhour's 3-point attempt from about 25 feet out glanced off the rim and into the hands of 'Iolani post Keahi Hogan as time expired.

The Raiders led 31-21 after Jourdan Simmons' jumper with 5:38 remaining, but AOP clawed back and eventually closed it to 32-29 on Drew Viena's baseline shot with 32 seconds left. After Reid Saito missed the front end of a 1-and-1 three ticks later, the Dolphins regained possession and nearly lost the ball out of bounds on an errant pass with eight seconds to go.

But they recovered and worked the ball to Dunhour, who got a clean look from the left wing, only to see his shot ricochet off the rim and into Hogan's hands as time ran out.

"I don't know what happened with that pass, but we had designed a play for Micah (during a timeout) anyway, and he had a good shot," AOP coach Walter Marciel said. "What hurt us is when we went 12 minutes with only one point (overlapping the third and fourth periods)."

The Dolphins closed the half with a 6-0 run to lead 20-14 at the break, but Dunhour's free throw with 2:04 remaining in the third quarter was their only point in the second half until Moritz Krume scored on a layup to close it to 31-21 with 3:36 left in the game.

"We tried to spread the floor and make us chase us, and hopefully get open on some back cuts," Marciel said. "But once they got a five-point lead (on Adam Ching's 3-pointer at the third-period buzzer), that was hard to come back from."

Krume scored a game-high 11 points, and Ching led a balanced 'Iolani offense with six points.