With the expected approval of a shot clock by the state’s five leagues for next season, ILH basketball is on the brink of change.

With a glut of talent going back decades, the league has often seen this scenario: more than enough talent to rack up high-scoring totals as teams and individuals. Rewind to the 1980s and two OIA powerhouses, Kalaheo and Farrington, played a 104-96 game during the regular season. No shot clock. No 3-point line. Just major pace and commitment to the fast break. Absurd amounts of talent, too.

That didn’t often carry over to championships. For all its physical talent, Farrington did not win a state title in the 1980s and has two D-II state crowns since. Kalaheo, however, won state titles with the utilization of its traditional flex offense and tough man defense — and elite coaching by the late Pete Smith and son Alika Smith.

Hilo always ran and pressed, but statewide supremacy did not happen until the Vikings’ halfcourt offense evolved to overcome ILH powerhouses.

The genius of the ILH’s best teams over the years hasn’t been the ability to maximize scoring opportunities, despite the natural inclination to believe in volume.

Instead, titles have been earned by teams willing to whittle away the excess and focus on defense and quality offensive possessions. Maryknoll won three state titles in a row under Kelly Grant, who treats every possession — summer league, preseason and regular season — like it was the final opportunity in a state-championship game.

The offense that coach Dan Hale runs at Saint Louis (21-4, 6-1 ILH) goes back decades to his years at Punahou. Hale has four state crowns as a player and coach. At Saint Louis, he turned a program that was competitive into a state champion through sheer discipline and teamwork on both ends.

The meticulous, multiple-layered set offense Saint Louis runs is built for the ILH gauntlet. Running out of healthy players? No problem. Their sixth through 12th men have been running reps of the offense in spring, summer and fall leagues, a repetition format that would make Ron Lee proud.

Too predictable? Perhaps. Coaches across the league, particularly at Punahou, have seen it since the 1980s. Yet, an overly aggressive defense gets zapped on the backdoor pass no matter how many times an opposing coaching staff preps its players.

The continuity and rhythm of Hale’s offense is built for this era of basketball. Five passes. Ten passes. Twenty passes? Whatever it takes, the Crusaders are willing to work station to station, patiently work every look, and reverse the ball to start the whole flow again.

For various reasons, most defense are willing to play that game and allow Saint Louis to run 20, 60, even 120 seconds off the clock. Most possessions, Saint Louis has a shot up within 30 seconds. However, that willingness to wait for the right shot is what separates Saint Louis from a lot of athletically superior teams.

The list of teams that have been able to merge effective transition with productive halfcourt offense is not long. Mililani is on that list. So is Kailua. Leilehua and Campbell are getting there. So are Kahuku and Moanalua. Most ILH teams are on the list almost by default after a half-century of perfecting grind-it-out basketball.

Punahou is an annual study in what a fastbreaking, fullcourt pressing team can and cannot do in the ILH. When the halfcourt offense is inconsistent, the Buffanblu aren’t getting open 3s, good spacing for drives and/or quality attacks from the block. It’s a lot like watching Hilo in the early 1990s, before the Viks won their first state title. Yet, Punahou has won state titles in this era (2012, ’18). The blueprint is there.

Scoring 70, 80 points per game works well until it doesn’t. Since the debut of the state tournament in 1957, a state championship game winner has reached 70 points only four times. Three times, it was Punahou (1974, ’75, ’80). The fourth time was in ’17 by Kahuku.

Last year’s score in Saint Louis’ title win over Mililani: 57-34.

Hale’s system proves this: a team of mostly sophomores and freshmen can succeed in Hawaii high school basketball with plenty of offseason repetition and complete buy-in. The Crusaders are No. 1 in the Star-Advertiser Boys Basketball Top 10. They may be the fastest team in the ILH, and with a blend of size, easily switchable defenders and a premier go-to scorer in Pupu Sepulona. The rookie mistakes are there, too, but quality possessions are what rule in the ILH gauntlet.

What happens if and when a 35-second shot clock is adopted by leagues in the 2023-24 season? Several tournaments use the shot clock, including the ‘Iolani Prep Classic. Saint Louis, still in early-stage mode, ran a crisper, quicker version of its base offense by the last couple of days in the tournament. Can the Crusaders thrive in the same offense next year? That remains to be seen.

The look, the touch, the feel of ILH basketball is the same for the moment. Right now, Saint Louis is king of efficiency.