Kahuku played as good a defense as it had all season, but 'Iolani was little better Friday night in a 45-38 win in a semifinal of the Hawaiian Airlines Division I state boys' basketball tournament at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The defending champion Raiders will face Kamehameha in a rematch of last year's title game. Tip off is 7 p.m. Saturday for the all-Interscholastic League of Honolulu affair. The teams split their regular-season meetings.

"They're getting the tempo up, scoring a lot of points, but we play great defense," 'Iolani coach Dean Shimamoto said of Kamehameha. "We're going to try to limit our turnovers, We're going to try to get easy buckets. We're going to try to keep Micah (Christenson) from scoring 25 points and taking over the game. It's going to be a battle."

Christenson is coming off a monster game in which he scored 28 and had 19 rebounds in a semifinal win against Academy of the Pacific, 68-54, Friday.

Trevyn Tulonghari and Josiah Sukumaran combined for 23 points for the Raiders. Tulonghari had 12 and Sukumaran added 11 in the defensive struggle.

"It was what we expected from their defense," Shimamoto said of the Red Raiders. "They're big, they're athletic, they get back in transition and they take charges and they block shots. I mean, we knew it was going to be a difficult time, especially against that match-up zone or whatever it was. It was hard to score against that."

While the Raiders labored to score, the Red Raiders had it even tougher. Shairone Thompson, who averaged 15 during the regular season, led his team with 10 along with point guard Kawehena Johnson. Kahuku's next leading scorer, KJ Uluave had just six.

"We played tough defense," Kahuku first-year coach Darren Johnson said. "We just couldn't get some shots to drop tonight. We couldn't get Shai (Thompson) and KJ (Uluave) going underneath. We had some turnovers on offense."

Still, the coach was proud of the effort against the defending state champs.

"We knew we were going to play good D," Johnson added. "We just knew we had to convert. We had to make some things happen. They played good D too. I think both teams were up into each other's shooters real good. They covered up our shooters, we covered up their shooters and it was a good battle."

Despite a height disadvantage, the Raiders positioned themselves well on the floor, out-rebounding Kahuku, 26-19.

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