Boys Basketball
AOP tops St. Joseph, 54-33, returns to title game


Wes Nakama
December 28, 2011, 11:41pm

    


Wed, Dec 28, 2011 @ Moanalua

St. Joseph

33

AOP

54

Final 1 2 3 4  
St. Joseph (2-4, 8-8) 8 98833
AOP (8-4, 19-8) 11 11 12 2054
A. Mkrtychyan 13 pts  2 3pm
T. Fairman 14 pts
Artur Mkrtychyan scored 13 points and brother Arkadiy added 10 points last night as the Academy of the Pacific raced past St. Joseph, 54-33, in the Na Menehune Holiday Classic semifinals at Moanalua.

The Dolphins will face Interscholastic League of Honolulu rival Maryknoll for the championship tonight at 7:30. St. Joseph, which had upset 'Iolani, 70-69, in overtime on Tuesday, will play Moanalua for third place at 6.

AOP lost to El Toro (Calif.) in last year's title game.

The Dolphins jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first two and a half minutes last night and extended it to 19-10 after an 8-0 run that ended with Mattia Raebel's putback with 5:10 remaining in the half. The Cardinals closed to 22-17 by halftime despite making only 3 of 8 free throws in the final four minutes.

AOP then finished the third period with a 7-3 run to lead 34-25 heading into the fourth, then sealed the victory with a 14-3 run that made it 48-28 after Ola Brown's layup with 3:10 left.

"St. Joseph is big, they have size and they're a good team, they're going to do well on the Big Island," Dolphins coach Walter Marciel said. "We played good defense tonight and our goal was to rebound and limit them to one shot."

Thomas Fairman led St. Joseph with 14 points.





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