Academy of the Pacific turned up the pressure to overcome an 11-point second quarter deficit to rally past Roosevelt, 53-46, Wednesday night in an opening-round game of the Hawaiian Airlines Division I state boys' basketball tournament at Farrington's Richard S. Kitamura Memorial Fieldhouse.

The Dolphins will play second-seeded Moanalua in a quarterfinal 7 p.m. Thursday at Farrington.

The Rough Riders stormed out to a 13-6 first-quarter lead and led 19-8 at one juncture of the second quarter. But down 21-12, the Dolphins closed the half with a 15-0 run to take a 27-21 lead at halftime.

Micah Dunhour led with the Dolphins with 22 points and Moritz Krume added 17. Kaipo Pale led the Rough Riders with 16 points and had a game-high 14 rebounds.

"Pale started off strong," AOP coach Walter Marciel said. "We didn't block him out. He hit some big shots at the beginning. That's just how he plays; he's a tough ball player.

"We made some adjustments in the second quarter. We put a little bit more pressure; full-court and half-court traps, caused some turnovers. But we missed a heck of a lot of shots tonight and free throws. This game was close all the way. If we hit a couple free throws at the end, we put this game away early."

The Dolphins shot 31.4 percent from the field and and 60.6 percent from the free throw line (20 of 33).

The Rough Riders were hampered by 27 fouls. The 6-foot-4 Pale, 6-3 Asten Koki, 6-2 Nicholas Samifua and J.J. Mariano all finished the game with four fouls each. Koki drew his fourth a little more than a minute into the second half and less than a minute later, Pale drew his third.

"To be honest, we didn't adjust to the way the game was being called," Roosevelt coach Steve Hathaway said. "I'm not blaming the calls; we didn't adjust. It seemed like it changed a little bit and we didn't change with it.

"But credit AOP; they changed their defense up. We threw the ball around. It wasn't so much the pressure. We just kind of panicked and threw the ball around a lot. But you have to give credit to them. They played well."

Roosevelt pulled to within 37-34 early in the third quarter, but AOP scored four of its next six after Rough Riders' turnovers. Though the Dolphins shot 6 of 11 in free throws down the stretch, the Rough Riders continued to be hampered by turnovers despite two late 3-pointers by Mariano, who had 13 points.

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