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Tuesday, December 19, 2000

By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Drew Hall (3) of Montrose Christian drives in for a basket
against Leilehua's Ricardo Bachelor during last night's first-
round action of the Iolani Prep Classic.

Roadrunners sprint
past Maryknoll

---

By Tim Crouse
Special to the Star-Bulletin

After traveling across the Pacific Ocean to reach the Iolani Classic, Crossroads coach Daryl Roper wasn't going to be satisfied with anything less than a total effort.

The Roadrunners from Santa Monica, Calif., defeated Maryknoll, 64-44, yesterday in the opening day of the week-long tournament.

But the victory didn't impress Roper.

"They have to come out with more intensity on defense," he said. "They're going to have to make free throws and they're going to have to rebound better.

"Maybe we're here having too much fun, but these guys are going to have to come to play."

In other games, Iolani got by Okinawa, 73-57; Northwestern (Miami) downed Radford, 65-53, and fourth-ranked Montrose (Md.) beat Leilehua, 69-53.

Crossroads, led by center Isaiah Fox -- a 6-foot-9 senior headed to Arizona for college -- jumped out to leads of 16-2 and 22-9 in the first half. But the Garrett Gabriel-coached Spartans went on a 10-1 run to cut the deficit to 23-19 with just under two minutes remaining before halftime.

Freshman guard Ryan Hirata drained a 3-pointer and hit a pair of free throws in the run.

With under a minute left in the half, Fox missed his second free throw after making his first. But teammate Jordan Rush rebounded, scored and converted a free throw after he was fouled.

The lead was doubled to eight, and the Spartans never recovered.

The Roadrunners put the game away in the third quarter, going on a 13-3 run highlighted by a Fox dunk and a driving layup and 3-pointer by Rush.

Fox finished with 13 points and Joe Abrahams added 11.

Russell Sypowicz led Maryknoll with 14 points. Hirata chipped in with 10.

All the teams that played yesterday have today off, and Roper plans to make the most of that time.

"We're going to practice very hard and iron out some things," he said.

The Roadrunners play Northwestern tomorrow. Iolani faces the winner of today's Castle-De La Salle game and Montrose takes on the Kamehameha-Maui winner.

Bobby Nash scored 19 points to lead Iolani over Okinawa.

Yoshiki Yamashiro paced the visitors with 14 points.

Winsome Frazier drilled five 3-pointers for Northwestern and finished with 17 points. Fritz Crichton tallied 16 for Radford.

Montrose used a balanced attack to defeat Leilehua, with Tony Bethel scoring 21, Levi Watkins 17 and Drew Hall 14.

Eric Marshall of Leilehua led all scorers with 23 points. Clifton Feliciano added 11.