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Tony Sellitto was in the house and it was fitting.
The coach whose last name is written on the center court logo in Maryknoll’s gym led the Spartans to back-to-back ILH boys basketball championships in the early 1980s and Monday night he watched the team pull off that same feat.
The top-ranked Spartans (13-1) captured their second straight league crown and a seeded berth in the upcoming Division I state tournament with a 55-42 victory over their cross-the-street rival, second-ranked Punahou. Maryknoll, the regular-season (first round) league champion avoided another game against the Buffanblu for the overall title with the victory that also sewed up the league’s second round (tournament).
“It’s so great to come back and win it again this year,” Spartans senior guard Makoto Kamata said. “Last year, we didn’t win states, so we want to win it this year. Coach Kelly (Grant) really emphasizes defense in practice and we just really work as a team and talk on defense and that got us the win today.”
Payton Grant and Liko Soares, a major presence in the middle, scored 13 points each to lead the way offensively.
Soares’ nine second-quarter points pushed Maryknoll out to a commanding 22-5 lead.
Punahou (11-4), which will also represent the ILH at the state tournament, couldn’t get anything going, missing from inside and coughing up the ball often in the early going.
“It was a good effort, but we didn’t execute very well,” Buffanblu coach Darren Matsuda said. “A lot of things didn’t go our way. On our first few possessions, we had good looks and it just didn’t fall for us. We got a lot of looks that didn’t fall after that. Then frustration and panic set in.”
Thanks to Kaulana Makaula’s three-point play and Ryder Hsiung’s basket from inside the paint — both on feeds by Peyton Macapulay — the Buffanblu got as close as 37-32 in the third quarter.
That Maryknoll defense really kicked in in the final quarter. A steal by Noah Furtado, who pushed the ball up to Kalai Akaka, who in turn fed Marcus Tobin underneath for a bucket, gave the Spartans a 42-34 edge and set the tone for the remainder of the contest.
Punahou’s attempt at a full-court press worked in spots, but Maryknoll got one quick press-breaker bucket when Nikolas Robben zipped a pass to Soares for a layup that made it 50-38 with less than three minutes to go. The Spartans cruised home from there.
“Our staple is defense, and we’re really good at what we do defensively,” Kelly Grant said. “It’s a luxury to be able to be coaching this kind of team. They have a really high basketball IQ.”
Soares wasn’t surprised with the outcome, since the Spartans beat the Buffanblu twice in the regular season.
“I wasn’t worried about them,” he said. “I was just keeping my cool the whole game and that was a big factor. I’m just really happy right now. I want to go and celebrate with my team now.”
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