Niko Robben scored 18 points, including two free throws with two seconds left, to seal No. 2 Maryknoll’s 45-41 win over No. 5 Damien on Friday night at Clarence T.C. Ching Gymnasium.
Maryknoll (25-2) improved to 9-2 in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu and clinched a state-tournament berth. The defending state champion Spartans have a regular-season finale at home against Punahou today.
Liko Soares added 11 points and was a key part of Maryknoll’s pressbreaker down the stretch.
“We finished the game. As bad as we played, I don’t know how many turnovers we had, we still finished the game, so I’m proud, and now we’re in the state tournament,” Spartans coach Kelly Grant said. “Liko played a hell of a game.”
>> PHOTOS: Damien vs. Maryknoll
Robben’s free throws came amid an uproar from Damien’s bench. After Dennis Mitchell Jr. made a follow shot to cut the score to 43-41 with 2.6 seconds left, Tino Atonio fouled Robben on the inbounds pass. Initially ruled a personal foul, referees conferred as a large Spartans home crowd howled for an intentional foul. After roughly 20 seconds, they got their wish and the foul was changed.
“I thought that was a common foul. Before that, we fouled them and they didn’t blow the whistle, so we tried to foul them harder so they would blow the whistle,” Damien coach Alvin Stephenson said. “It’s a bang-bang play. It’s up to the referees. It’s their call and in the end, it’s what they see.”
It made no difference in the outcome after Robben swished both free throws. Once again, the Spartans won a close game, sticking by their tried-and-true recipe of slow cooking from start to finish. That included a heavy dose of Soares, who added 11 points, including a reverse layup on a pass from Parker Grant to give Maryknoll a 43-39 lead with 35 seconds left.
Then came the tight squeeze in the final seconds.
“It didn’t matter as much if I made the two free throws. We weren’t really focused on the call. I was just focused on making the free throws,” Robben said.
Jake Holtz led Damien (15-13, 6-6) with 19 points and added five rebounds. With Damien trailing 28-15, Holtz, Bryce Forbes and Mitchell (11 points) sparked a rally. Holtz scored eight points in the fourth stanza as the visitors whittled away at the deficit.
Mitchell’s 3 cut the lead to 34-30 and a trey by Forbes nicked it down to 37-33. After Holtz scored on a reverse layup, the Monarchs were down 39-37 with 2:40 left. They couldn’t get any closer on a night when point guard Hayden Bayudan sat in the bleachers watching the game, dressed in street clothes.
Forbes, a 6-foot-7 senior, had 10 rebounds when the teams met on Jan. 16, including seven on the offensive glass. On Friday, he finished with nine points and just two boards as Maryknoll went with man-to-man defense wire to wire.
Maryknoll’s 7-foot sophomore, Sage Tolentino, committed his third personal foul with 1:33 left in the first quarter and didn’t return until the second half.
Damien is done with the regular season and will play next when the ILH’s second round (playoffs) begin.
