The Dolphins ended the first half with a 13-3 run to go up, 34-21, and held off a Buffanblu charge in the game's closing minutes.

"It's a big win, to take one from Punahou at their home," said AOP coach Walter Marciel. "I told our guys we have a chance to steal one here. Now we have Kamehameha at home at Le Jardin (on Thursday). This is the toughest I've ever seen the ILH, it's deep. Every team can play."

Punahou was without 6-foot-7 All-State center DeForest Buckner, who played in Tuesday's Semper Fidelity All-American Bowl football all-star game in Phoenix, and 6-4 forward Kupono Fey, who broke his right pinky finger at a Mainland volleyball tournament last week.

"(The Dolphins) are a good team and they played good defense," Buffanblu coach Darren Matsuda said. "We didn't play a good game, either. We didn't play aggressive like we usually do. They killed us by getting all the 50/50 balls, the loose balls and the rebounds."

AOP jumped out to a 6-0 lead and later went on a 10-4 run before leading 19-12 at the end of the first period. Punahou closed it to 21-18 on Bryan Matsukawa's free throw two minutes into the second, but the Dolphins responded with the 13-3 run bookended by Drew Viena's layup and a 3-pointer by David Daniel.

"Last week (while winning the Na Menehune Holiday Classic) we really stressed defense and tonight we did a good job holding down their shots and penetration," Marciel said.

AOP built the lead to 41-26 after Kamana Keahohou's layup midway through the third quarter, but the Buffanblu closed it to 45-37 entering the fourth and got it down to 50-46 after Nick Velasquez's reverse layup off a crisp halfcourt assist by freshman Dayson Watanabe with 3:18 remaining.

Watanabe later hit a 3-pointer to make it 55-51 with 44 seconds left, but the Dolphins made 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.

"We tell our guys every day that layups and free throws win games," Marciel said. "We've been working a lot on free throws, and we hit some crucial ones tonight."

Matsuda said he expects AOP to challenge everyone in the ILH, short-handed or not.

"The ILH has five really good teams this year, and I consider (the Dolphins) to be among the top two or three," he said.

Wilson Macleod scored a game-high 13 points for AOP and Daniel added 12 points off the bench. Taylor Henderson led Punahou with 10 points.