Cardinal Classic: Saint Louis pushes past Pahoa in final

At one point, Saint Louis coach Keith Spencer could only look at the scorer’s table and state the obvious.

“That boy can can shoot,” Spencer said. “We don’t see too many like him on Oahu.”

But despite Tolby Saito’s best efforts, the Crusaders walked away with the Cardinal Classic championship, beating Pahoa 64-52.

Saturday’s basketball bonanza at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium started with a high noon women’s tipoff between the UH-Hilo and Hawaii Pacific. It ended approximately 11 hours later with Saint Louis of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu denying the Daggers their second tournament title in as many weeks.

Saito’s 27 points were the high game for any of the six contests Saturday at the Civic, but Pahoa couldn’t generate enough support beyond Joel Rosario’s 10 points.

Saito either scored or assisted on each of Pahoa’s five field goals in the third quarter as St. Louis began to pull away from a 29-26 halftime lead.

Jimmy Nunuha III led the Crusaders with 19 points, and Ihaka Johnson added 16.

Waiakea 53, Kamehameha 40: Calvin Mattos scored 17 points and Noah Ferreira added 10 as the Waiakea won the third-place game.Solomon Kiacontributed 14 points for Kamehameha.

Honokaa 58, Hilo 50: Shyrome Batin’s 20 points paced three scorers in double figures as the Dragons finished fifth.

Gene Ansagay and Jonathan Charbonneau added 14 points apiece for Honokaa.

EJ Narido and Isaac Liu scored in double figures for the Vikings.

St. Joseph 44, Ka’u 41: Cole DeSilva’s 20 points helped offset a 21-point effort by the Trojans’ Brian Gascon, and the Cardinals won the seventh-place game.