No. 1 Saint Louis beats No. 2 ‘Iolani

Hayden Bayudan scored 18 points and Aiva Arquette added 11 as No. 1 Saint Louis stymied No. 2 ‘Iolani 47-39 on Tuesday night.

Saint Louis improved to 3-0 in Interscholastic League of Honolulu play (9-0 overall).

“It’s a tough game. I’m happy that we came away with a win. We’re all in the same boat of trying to work through some things,” Crusaders coach Dan Hale said. “A lot of these games would be like preseason games where you’re working through stuff, but it was a good effort by both teams and we were fortunate.”

Arquette added nine rebounds as the Crusaders used a mix of man-to-man and 2-3 zone that seemed to throw the visiting Raiders off rhythm.

‘Iolani made four of its six 3-pointers in the second half, but finished at 27 percent (6-for-22) from the arc.

Freshman JJ Mandaquit scored 18 points, but only two came in the final quarter. No other Raider scored more than five points on an otherwise warm night at Clarence T.C. Ching Athletic Center on the Saint Louis campus. ‘Iolani dropped to 1-1 in league play (5-3 overall) as a busy week began for the seven Division I members.

“I thought we got good looks. We just didn’t hit them. Saint Louis did. We made a couple of good runs when we got down seven and eight points, but we never really could get over the hump,” ‘Iolani coach Ryan Hirata said. “We really, really struggled with the details today. This is a young group and that’s no excuse, but at the same time, they need to play. They need to get on the court with each other, experience veteranship with Hayden and (AJ) Bianco and Aiva.”

The pace was much slower than ‘Iolani prefers, though Saint Louis had a 70-point output in a win at Kamehameha last week. Hale opted to minimize opportunities for ‘Iolani’s playmakers while putting Arquette, Bianco and freshman Pupualii Sepulona to work on the block.

“We kind of mixed it up. It was just something we worked out. They’ve got such good slashers and shooters. We’re OK in man, but it was kind of a different look we wanted to show them out there,” Hale said.

Making his first appearance since the end of football season, Bianco hit a turnaround classic jump hook off the glass to help the Crusaders open a 20-13 lead in the second quarter. After Shoncin Revuelto splashed a corner 3, Saint Louis had a 26-17 cushion.

‘Iolani chipped into the lead, but the left-handed Sepulona drove for a bucket with his right hand with four seconds left in the first half, and Saint Louis led 28-20 at intermission.

Mandaquit was relentless. The 6-foot-1 guard swished a 3 to begin the second half and had seven points in the third stanza to rally the Raiders within 31-28, but Bayudan’s consistency on mid-range pull-up jumpers was uncanny.

‘Iolani was within 38-33 with two minutes left when Bayudan took a charge from ‘Iolani’s Aaron Claytor. After Bayudan fed Bianco for a layup, he sank four free throws in a row to give Saint Louis a 44-34 lead with 42 seconds remaining.

Mandaquit’s NBA-range wing 3 cut the lead to seven, but Arquette’s breakaway dunk stretched the margin back to nine.

“It’s disappointing not to get a win tonight,” Hirata added, “but it’s a long season and we’ve just got to continue to improve every day.”

Saint Louis will visit No. 6 Punahou on Thursday, then will host No. 3 Maryknoll on Saturday. ‘Iolani will visit Maryknoll on Thursday and host No. 4 Kamehameha on Saturday. Five of the top six teams in the Star-Advertiser Top 10 are in the ILH.

Spectators are still not permitted to attend, but the games are steamed live.