High drama in Farrington win over Maryknoll

It was momentous. And epic.

Farrington’s 90-83 overtime win over Maryknoll had the sudden waves of multiple games combined. Drama, controversy. Most of all, clutch performance.

The second-to-last game of the ILH-OIA Challenge at Moanalua gym on Friday brought together two teams that hadn’t lost in the boys basketball tourney. With each team already in midseason form, the 300 or so fans reveled in a highly entertaining game.

Entering the fourth quarter, Farrington led 54-51. Former Spartan Isaiah Smith pushed the ball upcourt and kept hitting shots on his way to a 26-point night for the Governors. Van Hugo also hit key baskets for Farrington, while Kaleb Gilmore, Maryknoll’s mercurial junior guard, caught fire. After sitting through most of the third quarter with four fouls, he got on a roll against the Govs’ man defense.

But with 4:19 left, he drove left, scored another bucket, and then froze and stared at an official. From midcourt, another official whistled Gilmore for a technical foul. Tagged with his fifth foul, he pleaded with the official, but the Spartans bench pulled him away, offering no protest.

Josh Burnett took control after that for the Spartans. His pull-up 24-foot trey tied the game at 75 with 14 seconds left in regulation.

"I knew it was going in," said Burnett, who finished with a game-high 34 points.

The defender, Farrington’s 6-foot-2 Jacob McEnroe, scored 23 points of his own. He was a bit surprised.

"I was crushed. I nipped it a little bit," he said.

In OT, the Govs’ balance took center stage. Center Mason Semisi hit a turnaround jumper in the paint. Then, the other Isaiah, Visoria, hit a 26-foot trey as the shot clock expired. Up 80-78 with no apparent way to stop Burnett, the Govs found Tua Unutoa wide open in the left corner. His all-net trey sparking a 10-5 run to the finish.

Had Gilmore (20 points) avoided a fifth foul, the outcome may have been different.

"It was going to be tough to beat Farrington. They’re a tough team," Burnett said. "Our problem was we focused too much on the referees instead of the actual game. We thought we weren’t getting calls and Kaleb getting the technical, that was a game-changer."

But the sterling performance of Smith, who transferred to Farrington from Maryknoll two years ago, was undeniable.

"We finally stepped up today. Against Punahou, we had a lead and we lost it," Smith said, referring to Farrington’s lone loss two weeks ago.

"It’s still preseason. We hope to improve from this. There’s a lot of mistakes we had. A couple of turnovers and careless fouls with the hand check," he added.

Govs coach Allan Silva had to think back quite a bit for another game as action-packed.

"Probably 2008, the (Division II) championship at Blaisdell against Aiea," he said. "A lot of these guys know each other, they play all year around, they play each other and play with each other.

"We played three talented teams the last three nights: Kamehameha, Saint Louis and Maryknoll. They were just amazing. They came forward and played."

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See the game highlight video at hawaiiprepworld.com.