Maryknoll sophomore Joshua Burnett turned it on just in time for the Spartans.
Burnett scored all 14 of his points in the second half as No. 4 Maryknoll beat No. 8 Moanalua 52-40 in the semifinals of Na Menehune Holiday Classic at Moanalua on Wednesday.
The Spartans (8-1) move on to play AOP, which beat St. Joseph 54-33 in the other semifinal.
“He hasn’t had a full game yet,” Maryknoll coach Kelly Grant said. “But when he turns it on, he is on fire.”
Burnett drove the baseline to break open a tie game with 6:42 remaining, soaring over Moanalua’s smaller defense and laying it in for a 36-34 lead. When he was finished with his onslaught, the Spartans, who trailed throughout, were up by 10 points with 2 minutes left. After sitting much of the first half with two fouls, Burnett took the ball to the basket at every opportunity, outscoring Na Menehune 11-6 by himself in the quarter. Maryknoll scored 20.
Other Na Menehune
Holiday Classic scores
Tuesday
St. Joseph’s 70, ‘Iolani 69
Wednesday
Kaiser 61, ‘Iolani II 58
Punahou II 66, Island Pacific 43
McKinley 55, Roosevelt 39
Kalani 51, Castle 25
Waiakea 46, Mililani 34
‘Iolani 59, University 53 |
“He’s really active,” Moanalua coach Greg Tacon said. “We were already overextending ourselves on defense and he caught us.”
Freshman point guard Kaleb Gilmore scored 12 points for the Spartans and post player Tobias Schramm added 10. Maryknoll enjoyed taking 17 free throws in the telling quarter, hitting eight of them. Moanalua (7-4) didn’t get to the line until there was 3:30 left and hit two of three in the quarter.
The first quarter belonged to Marykoll’s Gilmore, who pushed the ball up the floor at every opportunity and scored seven of the Spartans’ eight points. But scrappy Moanalua matched the Spartans step-for-step and led by one point, 9-8.
Maryknoll tried to get a boost in the second by feeding Schramm, and he scored eight points. But again, it wasn’t enough. Moanalua doubled its lead to two going into halftime.
Na Menehune, who played a double-overtime game the previous night, insisted on making the Spartans run, getting more points (12) from their bench than their starters (10) in the half.
“I don’t think the previous night had anything to do with it,” Tacon said. “Our players were ready. We just had a bad start to the fourth quarter.”
Moanalua ran as soon as the second half started, moving the margin to four with its first possession when Dillon Turk went baseline and beat Schramm to the hoop. Na Menehune did not enjoy such a large lead again.
Austin Gaskins, who was playing with 16 stitches over his eye from an injury on Tuesday, bulled in a pair of putbacks to tie the game with 6:07 left in the third, and the teams traded the lead for the next 7 minutes. Maryknoll’s only lead in the quarter came at 2:21 when Burnett corralled a rebound and was fouled on the putback. He was scoreless to that point, and screamed before sinking the two free throws. It was a portent of things to come.
“He has unlimited ability,” Grant said. “But he is still uncertain what we are doing; we, like Moanalua, have some packages that take a lot of thinking. He’ll get it.”
