High school basketball: Bronny James, No. 3 Sierra Canyon outlasts No. 20 St. Paul VI 52-49 for 'Iolani Classic title

The St. Paul VI (Chantilly, Va.) boys basketball traveled nearly 5,000 miles to get a chance to play and beat third-ranked Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth, Calif.) for the 37th annual 'Iolani Classic championship in Honolulu. The Panthers had their chance on Wednesday but a couple of long distance shots didn't fall in the final five seconds and the Trailblazers escaped with a back-and-forth 52-49 victory.

Knasir "Dug" McDaniel, a crafty 5-foot-11 senior guard headed to Michigan, missed a pair of 3-pointers that would have tied the game, the second a runner at the buzzer. He was superb throughout and and finished with 17 points and five assists.

In the end, the Trailblazers (13-1) had a bit too much firepower, especially from the hot hand of tournament MVP Ramel Lloyd, who backed up a game-high 23 points in the semifinals with 20 points and five assists in the finals.

The Nebraska signee had plenty of help from  St. John's-bound wing Mike Price, who scored all 10 of his points in the second half, and Bronny James and Dylan Metoyer, who each had nine. The victory avenged a 70-62 loss to St. Paul VI in a 2020 Hoophall Classic tournament game and gave the Trailblazers their ninth straight win. Sierra Canyon played another game without its top player, Amari Bailey, ranked the second best senior in the country by 247Sports. The 6-5 UCLA-bound guard missed the early part of the season with a foot injury, returned, but re-injured himself.

Sierra Canyon seemed to take control with a 7-3 run, finished off with back to back layups from James and Price, to give the Trailblazers a 48-43 edge. But buckets from Deshawn Harris-Smith  (11 points) and Darren Harris (13 points) helped the Panthers close to 49-47.

As he did the entire tournament, Lloyd, a 6-6 guard with unlimited range, responded with a 3-pointer to make it 52-47. After a Justin Boggs layup for St. Paul, James and Price each missed the front ends of 1-and-1s, giving McDaniel two last looks, but both just rimmed out.

It was all McDaniel versus Lloyd early on as St. Paul took a 23-22 halftime lead.

McDaniel made three tough mid-range jumpers before drilling two straight 3-pointers while scoring 12 of his first 13 points. Lloyd scored 11 of the Trailblazers' first 15 points.

James was scoreless until late in the second quarter, but his driving layup and two free throws gave Sierra Canyon its first lead since 2-0 at 22-21. Harris-Smith made a driving layup to give the Panthers a halftime edge.

The third quarter went back-and-forth with Price hitting back-to-back 3-pointers to give Sierra Canyon a 36-35 lead. Brendan Robinson responded with a 3-pointer for the Panthers, before Lloyd finished off the third with yet another triple, giving the Trailblazers the lead heading into the fourth quarter, 39-38.