Lessons learned over the summer helped Saint Louis break away from Punahou on Wednesday to maintain a hot start to the ILH regular season.
The third-ranked Crusaders handled the Buffanblu press to set up fast-break layups and created opportunities off their defense in a 19-2 second-quarter surge and rolled to a 75-55 win at Punahou’s Hemmeter Fieldhouse.
“They played us during the summer and they pressured us and they hurt us in the summer,” Saint Louis coach Allan Silva said. “Just look for the open man, don’t panic. It was good nobody panicked tonight and they passed the ball well. They got to their spots, most of the time.”
Saint Louis controlled the paint for much of the night and sophomore forward Noa Purcell led the Crusaders with 22 points and senior center Tristan Nichols added 13 and the Crusaders improved to 4-1 in their first cycle through the league to remain alone atop the ILH Division I standings.
Guard Jaymason Nunuha finished with 16 points, Isaac Slade-Matautia added 11 and Zachary Choo scored all nine of his points from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.
Saint Louis had a few rough spots against the pressure early and Punahou took a 19-18 lead after the first quarter. But Saint Louis’ defense fueled a 15-0 run to start the second quarter and the Crusaders held the Buffanblu to a single bucket in the period to race to a 37-21 halftime lead.
“We just told the guys play good defense, help each other out, look for deflections,” Silva said. “We had a lot of deflections in that quarter and they played well together.”
Saint Louis stretched the lead to 19 when Purcell scored on a fastbreak while drawing a foul and converted the three-point play to open the third quarter.
“We usually don’t give up layups in our press,” Punahou coach Darren Matsuda said. “They’re very athletic, that’s one thing, but a lot of it was we weren’t following a lot of our assignments, especially in the second quarter.”
Punahou closed to 10 with 4:36 left in the fourth quarter when Christopher Kobayashi hit the third of his five 3-pointers. He drained another with 2:40 left to keep Punahou within sight of the Crusaders at 66-55. But that would be Punahou’s last bucket and Saint Louis pulled away from the free-throw line, finishing 18-for-28 in the fourth period, in a bounce-back win following a loss to Kamehameha last Friday.
“We have to get better, we haven’t arrived. We’re still getting better right now,” Silva said. “The last game I was not happy with them, we did not play our game, but we played it tonight.”
Punahou dropped its third straight to end its first run though the league at 1-4. Kobayashi led the Buffanblu with 21 points and Zayne Chong hit three 3-pointers and contributed 14 points off the bench. Jack-Eli Tufono added 10 points in the post.
“In the second quarter we lost some confidence, we didn’t play like we normally do,” Matsuda said. “So that’s what we’re working on right now. We’re not worried about anything else but trying to get our confidence back and trying to play our game the way we play.”
At Punahou
| Saint Louis (4-1) |
18 |
19 |
12 |
26 |
— |
75 |
| Punahou (1-4) |
19 |
2 |
15 |
19 |
— |
55 |
SAINT LOUIS—Jett Tanuvasa 3, Jaymason Nunuha 16, Zachary Choo 9, Thomas Nihipali 0, Christopher Sykes 0, Noa Purcell 22, Lance Sataraka 1, Isaac Slade-Matautia 11, Tristan Nichols 13, Junior Wily 0, Noah Browne 0.
PUNAHOU—Cole Arceneaux 0, Zayne Chong 14, Hunter Hosoda 4, Kyle Yoshino 0, Hunter Lee 0, Christopher Kobayashi 21, ‘Akahi Troske 2, Cole Mausolf 0, Kaulana Makaula 2, Jack-Eli Tufono 10, Jared Lum 2, Les Falatea 0, Duke Clemens 0, Noah-Falcon Kaumatule 0.
3-point goals—Saint Louis 2 (Nunuha, Tanuvasa). Punahou 8 (Kobayashi 5, Chong 3).
