Paige Oh scored 11 of her 13 points in the fourth quarter as No. 3 ‘Iolani rallied from a 13-point, second-half deficit for a 41-36 win over No. 2 Maryknoll to secure a state-tournament berth on Monday night at Maryknoll Community Center.
“It feels great to get the win. We decided to go with more fullcourt pressure, tried to speed the game up. Put some pressure on them and it ended up working for us,” Oh said. “We’re just excited to play in states and the ILH tournament.”
Center Mele Sake tallied 13 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks for the Raiders in the tiebreaker game for first place. The Raiders were ice-cold, 2-for-20 from the field, in the first half before rallying.
“I feel good. Relieved. We really had to flip the switch,” said Sake, a 6-foot-1 sophomore. “We’ve just got to take it one game at a time.”
The two powerhouse programs had finished the regular season at 10-2. necessitating a tiebreaker game for one of the ILH’s two state berths.
“They played well. We missed how many layups (in the first half),” ‘Iolani coach Dean Young said. “We should’ve been winning with the amount of layups we missed.”
Using fullcourt pressure late in the third quarter and through the fourth, the Raiders turned a 28-15 deficit into a 31-28 lead, a 16-0 run.
“You know Chico (Furtado). You can’t give him a sizable lead going into the fourth. Late third, it’s like, if we’re going to make a move, it’s got to be now, girls,” Young said.
Ciera Tugade-Agasiva poured in 17 points with 10 rebounds for Maryknoll (20-4 overall), while center Taimane Faleafine-Auwae hustled for 10 points, four boards and five blocks.
‘Iolani freshman Mia Frye had eight points, all in the second half, to help the Raiders (20-8 overall).
The ILH playoff tournament will tip off today. Top seed ‘Iolani will host Kamehameha, and Punahou will visit Maryknoll. Kamehameha reached the tourney semifinal with a 59-55 win over Damien on Monday.
Maryknoll will have to bounce back without point guard Hailey Perez, who suffered a knee injury in the second half.
“We always evaluate, and maybe we could’ve called a couple of timeouts,” Furtado said. “But in the course of a game you can’t have those deep valleys.”
Down 13 points, Sake got hot and the team’s first-half shooting woes reversed. With the Raiders using fullcourt pressure, Sake scored four points inside, and Oh connected on a couple of 3-pointers. Her corner 3 gave the Raiders a 31-28 lead, and on the same play, Perez suffered a knee injury.
Sake scored again in the paint, Oh sank a 10-foot runner and added two foul shots on the next possession. After Ohta hit two free throws, ‘Iolani had a 39-32 lead with 1:07 left.
Sake fouled out with 57.8 seconds to go. After Tugade-Agasiva hit a foul shot and scored on a fast-break layup, Maryknoll was within 39-36 with 25.4 seconds remaining.
Oh made one free throw with 19.1 seconds left, and Ohta added a final charity shot with 8.2 seconds to play.
It was the fourth meeting between the teams. Maryknoll won the first two matchups, 47-46 and 43-22. ‘Iolani won last week, 48-47 in overtime.
“What this group has is a lot of grit. They have a lot of motivation, too,” said senior guard Abby Tanaka, who suffered a knee injury in December. “It doesn’t matter what the scoreboard is, they just know how to fight. They never give up. That’s what I love about them.”
