Iolani withstood host Punahou's furious fourth-quarter rally in a 38-35 win Saturday night in Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I girls' basketball at the Hemmeter Fieldhouse.

The Raiders finish the first of three rounds at 4-0, while the Buffanblu dropped to 3-1.

Kylie Maeda, who led all scorers with 12 points, made both end of a one-and-one with 4.6 seconds left, providing the margin of victory.

Punahou's inbound pass to the midcourt line was deflected out of bounds by Iolani. Punahou inbounded from midcourt, but Mysha Sataraka's shot from near the top of the key missed as time expired; it didn't matter because she was called for a traveling violation.

It was a tight defensive battle from the start with the teams tied at 7 after the first quarter. The Buffanblu had a 16-13 lead with about two minutes left in the half, but the Raiders closed the half with an 8-0 run highlighted by 3-pointers from Pua Kahalehoe and Maeda to give Iolani a 21-16 lead at the half.

The Raiders carried that momentum into the third quarter. They had their widest margin of the night at 33-19 following back-to-back baskets by Jade Botelho. It would be the last time the Raiders would be heard for nearly eight minutes. The Buffanblu scored the last four points of the quarter to cut their deficit to 10.

Punahou turned up the heat defensively to start the fourth quarter, causing Iolani to turnover the ball six times, as the Buffanblu's 13-0 run from the end of the third quarter pulled them to 33-32 with 2:50 left after Sataraka's five-foot jumper from the center of the key.

"We stopped scoring for a while," Iolani coach Eddie Maruyama said. "I don't know how many minutes went by. We have to take a look at what happened and make some adjustments."

Iolani broke its scoring drought when Maeda scored with 1:56 left to make it 35-32 and increased it to 36-32 after Alex Masaquel made the front-end of a one-and-one with 1:28 left.

Turner Wong cut Punahou's deficit to two after her short jumper with 1:16 left. Later, with 17 seconds left, Sataraka drove to the hoop, but her layup missed as she was fouled. She made only her second free, so Iolani still held the lead.

Iolani turned over the ball in its backcourt after the inbound with 12 second left. Sataraka turned over the ball while trying to dribble-drive to the basket with four seconds left, as Maeda was fouled. She converted both ends of her one-and-one.

The close contest at the end was beneficial to a young Iolani team, which has just two seniors. But the Raiders know only a third of the battle is done.

"It's a good experience for our girls, to be able to play at Punahou and get a victory," Maruyama said. "But we still have a lot of work to do. We still have to play them two more times and everybody else."

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