HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Punahou's Miah Ostrowski went over Palm Beach Lakes' Corey Claitt to tie the game at 22 at the end of the first half last night in the Iolani Classic.
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Palm Lakes pulls away
By Venus Lee
Special to the Star-Bulletin
Punahou's Spencer McLachlin scored 13 points on the first day of Division I basketball in the Iolani Classic as the Buffanblu lost to Florida's Palm Beach Lakes 52-40 last night.
Punahou couldn't stop the Rams' Corey Claitt, who registered a double-double with 22 points and 10 rebounds.
Claitt helped the Rams jump out to an early lead by sinking three of their first four field-goal attempts. But after that, the Rams went cold, going 1-for-9 from the floor.
McLachlin tied the score at 8 with under a minute to go in the first quarter, but Claitt answered with a tough baseline shot to help his team regain the lead.
Punahou trailed throughout most of the second quarter until Miah Ostrowski made his first points of the game by sinking a long 3-pointer to tie it up with less than a minute to go in the half.
On the subsequent in-bounds play, Ostrowski stole the ball and scored on a layup to put the Buffanblu ahead 24-22.
On the following play, Punahou fouled Angelo Bellamy, who made his first of two free throws. Bellamy missed his second attempt, but teammate Alphonso Starling grabbed the rebound and put it back in to give Palm Beach the lead 25-24 heading into the locker room.
"We played great in the first half and were able to stay close," Punahou head coach Greg Tacon said. "The turning point in the game was the third quarter."
The Rams started the second half with a 7-0 run in the first 90 seconds and never looked back.
"We lost this game by ourselves," Ostrowski said. "We had too many turnovers and didn't take care of the ball."
The Buffanblu turned the ball over 21 times and lost the battle on the boards 33-14. Ostrowski had 10 turnovers.
Punahou plays Leilehua tomorrow at 2 p.m., preceded by a Nanakuli-Damien matchup at 12:30.
Earlier yesterday, Nanakuli lost to Florida's Arlington Country Day 97-43. Kalai Kahalekai led the Golden Hawks with 13 points, and the Apaches had four players scoring in double digits: David Swann 16, Devon Lamb 15, Josue Soto 13 and A.J. Stewart 11.
Damien's Matt Gochenouer had a game-high 17 points as his Monarchs lost to Urspring 70-39. Marco Buljevic, Lucca Staiger and Nicolai Simon led the team from Germany with 13 points apiece, and Dima Rastatter added 10 points.