Wilson MacLeod made the most of his shot at redemption.

Moments after the Academy of the Pacific senior gave up a game-tying 3-pointer, Dolphins head coach Wally Marciel drew up a play to put the ball in MacLeod’s hands in the final seconds.

MacLeod rewarded his coach’s faith by pulling up in the lane and hitting a jumper with just over 2 seconds left to lift third-ranked AOP to a 39-37 win over No. 8 ‘Iolani in the Raiders’ gym Thursday night.

“It means a lot for Coach to put me in that position,” MacLeod said.

MacLeod’s shot — AOP’s lone field goal of the fourth quarter — clinched the top spot in the first round of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I boys basketball season for the Dolphins, who finished the round at 7-1.

The Dolphins hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over Punahou and will now be the target for the teams trailing them in the standings heading into the ILH’s second round.

The league will be split, with the top-five teams playing among each other and the bottom four also playing a round robin. The teams with the top two overall records after the second round claim berths into the Division I state tournament. The third spot will be determined by a playoff.

“This is a big win for the team, the school, our program,” Marciel said. “We go into the next round and now every game is tough.”

AOP led for much of the first half against ‘Iolani but went into the locker room tied 21-21 after Raiders freshman Erik Yamada took an inbounds pass with 2.5 seconds left and launched a shot from beyond halfcourt that swished through the net.

But the Raiders (4-3) managed just one field goal in the third quarter as AOP pulled ahead to take a 32-23 lead into the fourth.

A 3-pointer by Yamada and Gabriel Vega’s dunk early in the period brought ‘Iolani back to within four with 5:30 left. All of the subsequent scoring came from the free-throw line until just 30 seconds remained with AOP holding a 37-34 lead.

After a timeout, O’Leary pulled up at the top of the key and drained a 3-pointer over MacLeod to tie the game with 23 seconds left.

‘Iolani called another timeout and Marciel told MacLeod during the break, “You’re going to win this game for us.”

“I wanted it a lot,” MacLeod said, “Coach was getting on me about it too, so I wanted to get back and not let my teammates down.”

After the Dolphins wound the clock down, MacLeod got the ball at the top, drove into the lane and pulled up for the winner for the last two of his game-high 13 points.

“We wanted to go to a defense our team was confident in,” ‘Iolani head coach Dean Shimamoto said. “He hit a shot that was contested with a man in front of him; sometimes that happens. We played the defense we wanted to play and they hit a shot.”