Saint Louis boys earn state basketball berth

Pupu Sepulona scored 11 points and Jiovanni Ramos scored all seven of his points in the second half as No. 4 Saint Louis won the ILH regular-season title with a 33-30 victory over No. 2 Maryknoll on Thursday at the Clarence T. C. Ching Athletics Center.

Saint Louis (23-6 overall) clinched the ILH regular-season title and a berth in the state tournament as it beat Maryknoll (21-5) for the third time this season and held the Spartans to a season-low 30 points.

“Defense is what won us the game,” Sepulona said. “Not really about offense, but defense — stopping the opponents from scoring — and I think we did a great job.”

Maryknoll forward Fabian Camacho’s 3-point shot from the right wing missed with 2.8 seconds remaining and a held ball was called as Saint Louis and Maryknoll fought for the rebound.

With the possession arrow toward Maryknoll, the Spartans had another opportunity to tie the game with 0.6 seconds left but were unable to get a 3-point shot off before the buzzer sounded.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game. They’re a really good team and we just hung in there and did what we did,” Saint Louis coach Dan Hale said. “We built this team on defense, and at the end of the day, that’s what it was.”

Saint Louis began the third quarter on a 10-2 scoring run — sparked by Ramos’ steal and fast-break layup on the opening possession of the quarter.

“We always talk about getting good starts in the second half — we did one against ‘Iolani — and today, we just made mistakes off the start,” Maryknoll coach Kelly Grant said. “With our senior leadership, we have to be able to manage those kinds of situations, and I felt that we didn’t do that today.”

Ramos also made a 3 in the third quarter that gave Saint Louis a 24-21 lead and the Crusaders remained in front for the remainder of the game. The junior guard also hit a pair of free throws with 58.3 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter as Saint Louis was able to limit its turnovers and burn up most of the clock in the period.

“That was another momentum play,” Ramos said about his 3. “It gave good confidence to me when I hit the free throws at the end.”

“They’re very composed for a young team,” Grant said. “Pupu did a hell of a job. He wasn’t forcing anything today. Jordan (Posiulai) is always available when the guards are in trouble. They’re just a well-coached team.”

Saint Louis enters the ILH tournament as the No. 1 seed and Maryknoll enters as the No. 2 seed. Both teams play in the semifinal round of the tournament on Saturday, but the Crusaders are the lone team in the league that has clinched a state tournament berth.

“That’s a huge relief because the ILH is just loaded with teams,” Hale said about securing a state tournament bid. “Literally any one of those teams could make a run, so we just wanted to be one of the two guys, however we got it.”

“It’s a lot nicer to get it now and then go into the tournament under our belt, but we still want to keep improving and keep this thing going so that when we get to the states, we’re ready to go. The OIA’s got a lot of really good teams, so we got to be ready to go for that.”