By Wes Nakama
Starting fast and finishing strong — with some tenuous moments in between — Saint Louis turned back visiting ‘Iolani, 55-41, Tuesday night in ILH boys basketball action.
A modest crowd of about 250 at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletic Center watched Keanu Meacham score a game-high 16 points and Pupu Sepulona add 13 points as the three-time defending state champion Crusaders improved to 22-1 overall and 5-0 in league play. Ayden Goo scored 13 points and Declan Beckette added 10 points for the Raiders, who fell to 10-8 and 2-2.
Saint Louis used an opportunistic transition offense to jump out to a commanding 15-4 lead in the first four minutes, then finished the game with a door-slamming 15-2 surge after ‘Iolani had closed it to 40-39 on Beckette’s turnaround jumper with six minutes remaining.
“Our defense is a big part of our game, and we play tough defense most of the time,” said Meacham, a junior wing in his third varsity season. “So we don’t worry about anything. At any given moment, we can score. We have been playing together a long time, and we’re unselfish. It’s helped us in the long run.”
Sepulona scored on a putback and then converted a three-point play to cap an 8-0 run to push the Crusaders ahead, 15-4, with 4:07 remaining in the first period. Aiden Wong later followed his fast break layup with a 3-pointer from beyond the top of the key to close it to 26-21 with 2:13 left before halftime, but Zion Lefotu came off the bench to score a layup a minute later to help Saint Louis take a 28-21 lead into the break.
“I think we cleaned up some things before the end of the first quarter, and obviously the second quarter,” Raiders coach Ryan Hirata said. “But they come in waves, and they’re very stout in what they do offensively and defensively. But I was proud of our effort, we showed that we can compete. The kids were resilient, we got a lot of the 50/50 balls that we asked them to before the game. So this game is going to make us better. It’s still early in the season, so we just gotta take the pieces that we did well, and improve on it.”
‘Iolani closed it to 36-34 on Raymon Teocson’s 3-pointer from the left corner with 2:03 remaining in the third period, but Sepulona scored on a layup 90 seconds later to put the Crusaders ahead, 38-34, entering the fourth.
After Beckette’s turnaround jumper cut it to 40-39 with 5:56 left, Meacham swished a 15-foot jumper from the free throw line 25 seconds later to ignite a 7-0 run capped by Shancin Revuelto’s fast break layup with 1:15 remaining to stretch the lead to 49-39 which essentially sealed the victory.
“These guys are battle-tested, I’ve got a bunch of seniors out there and they know what it means to be in these tough games,” Saint Louis coach Dan Hale said. “Making plays down the stretch … That’s what it is. I think that’s a testament to these guys, it’s a very selfless group. At the end of the game, it’s whoever can help us win. And that’s a really tough thing to have, in today’s age where guys are looking at how much they score or whatever. These guys are looking at, ‘Did we win?’ and ‘What did I do to help?’ and ‘How can I help?’
“We’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of different guys scoring and doing different things. That’s how we’ve been able to win some of these close games.”
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