The wet and windy weather may have kept a lot of fans from going to the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium to watch final day action of the Hilo High Holiday Prep Classic, but the end result of the championship game will likely create a statewide buzz that thousands may grasp come February.

An all-ILH championship match was won by the Maryknoll Spartans, as they defeated Iolani 47-41 in front of about 250 fans in Hilo.

Iolani started the game on a 9-0 run over the first four minutes of the game, with the Raiders offense running through athletic big man Gabriel Vega. Vega got to the free throw line several times by grabbing the basketball at various points above the low block and driving to the tin. That run ended when opposing big man Tobias Shramm scored with just under four minutes to play in the first half, and that sparked a 13-2 Spartan run that lasted well into the second quarter, paced by Iolani turnovers and the slashing speed of Kaleb Gilmore.

As Maryknoll exited the locker room at halftime, they looked like the more confident team, once again using speed and mixing in jump shots in the half-court offense to start the third quarter on an 11-2 over the first 6:30 of the period, this time led by a Danny Danbara trey and good defense by Isaiah Dowdell.

The game tightened up in the fourth quarter. 'Iolani ran their offense through their two interior post presences, Vega and Duke Pauli, who combined for 9 of the team's 14 fourth quarter points to get within one posession of Maryknoll. However, a couple of missed free throws by those two, along with a missed three within the last ten seconds by Zach Busher, sealed the win for Maryknoll.

Vega led all scorers with 12 points for Iolani. Dowdell had eight for Maryknoll, with four different players right behind him dropping in seven points, including tournament most valuable player Tobias Shramm.

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