DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM St. Louis' Desmond Hanohano scored seven points but Iolani beat the Crusaders in overtime 54-47.

Defending champs
pull out overtime
ILH battle

Stout Saint Louis provided
a physical challenge, but
Iolani prevailed in the end

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By Nick Abramo
nabramo@starbulletin.com

Defending state champion Iolani remained calm in the face of physically imposing Interscholastic League of Honolulu rival Saint Louis and walked away with a 54-47 overtime basketball victory last night.

The game had nine lead changes, and the host Raiders prevailed by outscoring the Crusaders 9-2 in the extra period.

"Once we got to overtime, I felt pretty good about our chances," Iolani coach Mark Mugiishi said. "We had six practices of overtime already."

He was referring to the five-OT game the Raiders played in Boston during a holiday tournament. That game was followed by a single-OT contest.

"We buckled down," said Iolani forward Bobby Nash, who scored 12 points despite going up against the Crusaders' imposing Wilson Afoa. "We kept playing hard in the overtime, and we had plenty of experience in close overtime games like that in Boston. We learned a lot from that. Tonight, we cut down on mistakes, especially in the overtime, and we won because we made fewer mistakes."

Iolani took over sole possession in the ILH at 4-0. The Crusaders dropped to 3-1.

Saint Louis trailed 38-31 heading into the fourth quarter and relied on the clutch play of Jason Rivers to get them to overtime. Rivers' two acrobatic drives, B.J. Batts' three-pointer from the corner and Desmond Hanohano's hoop on a feed from Rivers gave the Crusaders a 45-43 lead.

Nash's rebound hoop tied it at 45 and sent the game to OT.

The Crusaders had a chance to win it on their last possession of regulation, but Hanohano's try from underneath on a skip pass from Jonah Lakatani hit under the rim.

Early in overtime, Afoa missed an inside shot and the follow-up rebound for Saint Louis.

That's when the smooth Iolani offense took over. Ryan Hirata popped in a 15-footer and Derrick Low was fouled while going the length of the court for a layup and he converted the free throw for a 50-45 edge.

In the final 30 seconds, Low drove the lane for a bucket and passed to Zach Tollefson for an easy layup to put the game away.

"Saint Louis always scares me," Mugiishi said. "We're a finesse, jump-shot type of team and they're a grind it out, in-your-face team. Every year we have battles like this.

"One thing we had was Derrick. He provides mental comfort and a lot of confidence to our other ball-handlers."

Afoa had the only basket for the Crusaders in the overtime. Throughout the game, he let Nash know it wasn't going to be easy.

"He's (Afoa) a beast under the basket. Every time we went up for a rebound, he was tough," Nash said. "We had to work on backing him away from the basket and we had some success with that late in the game."

Hanohano, Rivers and Timo Paepule also contributed to Saint Louis' success under the boards.

Batts' swish from the corner gave the Crusaders a 19-18 edge to end the nip-and-tuck first half.

Iolani pulled away in the third quarter and took the largest lead of the game -- 38-28 --thanks to two treys by Low.

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