St. Joseph pulled another magical rabbit out of the hat.
The No. 3 seed Cardinals overcame an 18-point deficit and upset No. 1 Honokaa 51-50 in the BIIF Division II boys basketball championship, clinching their first league title since 2010.
The Cardinals (8-6) and Dragons (9-5) have berths to the Division II state tournament, which will be held Feb. 18-20 on Oahu.
St. Joseph also overcame the loss of two starters. The first quarter was unkind to the Cardinals, who lost Kaena Naho’opi’i and Allan Wu to knee injuries. Neither returned.
“We were grinding, and it reminded me of my dad (Harry Scanlan-Leite) when he used to coach,” St. Joe coach Mike Scanlan said. “He would say to keep grinding. We did that, and we finished. I need to thank my wife (Eden Scanlan). She’s been supportive and knows how much coaching means to me because of my dad.
“We were so scrappy and never gave up. If we keep grinding, good things will happen.”
Honokaa opened the third quarter on a 10-4 scoring run to push its advantage to 44-26, ending with consecutive putbacks by Micah Lorenzo and Koa Callihan, the latter basket bumping the lead to 18 points.
But St. Joe senior Cole deSilva made 4 of 6 free throws, including one on a Honokaa technical foul, to cut the lead to 46-32 entering the final eight minutes.
To start the fourth quarter, deSilva knocked down two free throws, and Kainalu Lau answered with a basket, Honokaa’s last with under seven minutes remaining.
Then St. Joe went on a magical 17-0 run, highlighted by a 3-pointer by Titus Liu that cut the Dragons’ lead to 48-46 with 1:26 left.
On Friday, Manato Fukuda, a junior from Japan, sank a game-winning layup to lift the Cardinals over No. 2 seed Hawaii Prep 41-41 in the BIIF semifinals.
A night later, his partner Ruka Suda, a sophomore from Japan, got his own roar of cheers from the proud Cardinal fans when he nailed a 3-pointer for a 49-48 lead with 58 seconds remaining.
The Dragons looked to run in transition, but they got their pocket picked by Suda, who snagged a steal and scored on a layup for a 51-48 lead with 55.3 seconds to play.
Kelvin Falk sank two free throws to get Honokaa within 51-40 with 20.7 seconds remaining.
Then Fukuda was fouled with 7.2 seconds on the clock. But he missed both free throws, and Honokaa grabbed the rebound.
The Dragons called timeout with 3.1 seconds and inbounded the ball at halfcourt, but Ruka was waiting like a hawk and poked the ball away and right into the hands of deSilva.
The fourth quarter was one for the ages for St. Joe, which shot 6 of 12 on field goals and committed only one turnover and finished with 14 giveaways.
Honokaa went 1 of 6 from the field and had six painful giveaways in the fourth period and finished with 18 turnovers.
DeSilva scored 16 points, Suda 15, Fukuda 13 and Liu five to lead the Cardinals, who shot 34 percent (14 of 41) from the field and made 16 of 30 free throws.
Jonathan Charbonneau scored 15 points and was the only one in double figures for the Dragons, who converted 39 percent (20 of 51) from the floor and sank 4 of 14 free throws.
The first half was a fast-paced track meet, which favored the Dragons, who led 34-22 at halftime.
Honokaa relied on its size and speed to run the floor for layups and muscle under the basket for close-range shots.
When a shot was missed someone in a green Dragon uniform was there to grab a rebound and shoot again or for a third time, a reason they made 13 of 31 field goals. The smaller Cards were just 5 of 13 from the field.
Charbonneau scored 11 points in the first half, dropping in three layups and hitting three baskets just two feet from the basket.
The Dragons made a key 12-1 run in the second quarter that bumped their lead to 32-17 with under a minute remaining until halftime. Jerome Quines got the momentum going with a 3-pointer, and Charbonneau capped the scoring spurt with another layup.
However, there was a second half to play, and the Cardinals were ready to pull another magical rabbit out of the hat.
St. Joseph 11 11 10 19 — 51
Honokaa 12 22 12 4 — 50
