KANE'OHE — Punahou gave USA Today's 14th-ranked boys basketball team all it could handle last night before falling to Montrose Christian (Rockville, Md.), 69-57, in the semifinals of the inaugural Merv Lopes Holiday Classic.

The Mustangs (11-0) will play El Toro (Lake Forest, Calif.) in tonight's 8:30 p.m. championship at King Armory. Punahou (10-2) plays Kalaheo for third place at 7.

A crowd of about 900 last night watched the Buffanblu — led by All-State point guard Miah Ostrowski and 6-foot-7 forward Spencer McLachlin — stay within striking distance of Montrose Christian until the final minute.

Ostrowski sank two free throws to pull Punahou within 64-57 with 1:21 remaining, then stripped and stole the ball under the Mustangs basket and found an open teammate at the other end, but the layup attempt rimmed out.

Adrian Bowie then swished two free throws to make it 66-57, and Ostrowski misfired on a 3-point attempt on the Buffanblu's next trip down the floor.

Bowie, a 6-foot-3 guard who has signed a letter of intent to play for the University of Maryland, then made the second of two free throws to make it 67-57 with 32 seconds left.

"Punahou is a very good team — not a good team for Hawai'i, but simply a good team," said Montrose Christian coach Stu Vetter, who has brought several highly ranked teams to the islands in the past 20 years. "(Ostrowski) is an outstanding guard; he reminds me of Derrick Low, who is doing a great job in college now. He's very quick, and we had to make adjustments at halftime and tried to trap the ball in the second half, because we couldn't guard him (one-on-one)."

Ostrowski, a 5-9 senior, finished with 14 points, three assists, one rebound and one steal. McLachlin had 22 points, seven rebounds, three steals and two blocks.

"He was tough to defend, too" Vetter said. "He's deceptively quick, and I felt he did a nice job."

The Mustangs jumped out to a 7-0 lead, but the Buffanblu quickly settled down and played Montrose even for the rest of the half, trailing 39-33 at the break.

The Mustangs maintain the lead with five 3-pointers.

"It's hard when they're like 6-4 and they're just shooting over you," Ostrowski said. "You can't just put a hand up; we were flying at them and trying to close them out."

A 3-pointer by Troy Brewer a minute into the fourth period stretched the Montrose lead to 60-45, but Punahou slowly chipped away and kept it interesting until the final minute.

"I'm very proud of our guys, because we didn't go away," Buffanblu coach Dan Hale said. "We kept attacking and got some real good looks."

Tristan Spurlock, a 6-6 sophomore wing, led the Mustangs with 19 points and seven rebounds. Bowie added 16 points and Brewer contributed 14 points.

PUNAHOU (10-2) 16 17 10 14 — 57

MONTROSE CHRISTIAN (11-0) 22 17 15 15 — 69

PUNAHOU — Robbie Toma 5, Miah Ostrowski 12, Kimo Makaula 14, Kyle Whitford 0, Henry Cassiday 2, Ted Hawkins 0, Trevor Crabb 0, Kameron Steinhoff 2, Spencer McLachlin 22, Dane Okamura 0, Sean McFadden 0, Casey Shibuya 0. Totals 24 5-9 57.

MONTROSE CHRISTIAN — Adrian Bowie 16, Troy Brewer 14, Shane Walker 0, Brandon Rascoe 1, Micah Fraction 0, Phil Wood 4, Tristan Spurlock 19, Terrell Vinson 10, Isaiah Armwood 5. Totals 23 15-27 69.

3-point goals: Punahou 4 (Makaula 2, McLachlin, Toma); Montrose Christian 8 (Brewer 4, Spurlock 3, Vinson).

EL TORO (CALIF.) 53, KALAHEO 45

Drew Bruns scored 16 points and Drew Hillman added 10 points to lead the Thunderbirds (Lake Forest, Calif.) past the Mustangs in lst night's first semifinal.

Kalaheo led midway through the second period, but a 9-1 run gave the Thunderbirds, a 2006 California Interscholastic Federation quarterfinalist, an 18-12 lead with 2:23 remaining in the half, and they were ahead 21-16 at the break.

El Toro then began the second half with an 11-2 run and held off a late challenge by the Mustangs.

KALAHEO 10 6 7 22 — 45

EL TORO 7 14 19 13 — 53

KALAHEO — Cody vonAppen 4, Koa Siliga 5, Keano Bruhn 0, Bruce Andrews 2, Tyler Caswell 8, Cheynne Lishman 8, Chase Moses 6, Cliffton Pires 9, Deaux Burns 3. Totals 13 15-23 45.

EL TORO — Matt Ahrens 6, Jonathan Bastos 2, Drew Bruns 16, Ryan Gahan 9, Tim Hespe 0, Drew Hillman 10, Brett Lopez 3, Andre Murillo 2, Brad Parry 0, Daman Starring 5. Totals 18 11-17 53.

3-point goals: Kalaheo 4 (Lishman 2, Moses, vonAppen); El Toro 6 (Bruns 3, Ahrens, Gahan, Lopez).

KAMEHAMEHA-HAWAI'I 59, BALDWIN 45

Hogan Rosehill scored 16 points and Kealoha Kramer added 15 points to lead the Warriors past the Bears.

Chase Nakamura and Kawika Grace each scored 12 points to lead Baldwin.

CASTLE 67, HILO 48

Malani Lum scored 10 points to lead the Knights past the Vikings.

Kahiau Kapsky led Hilo with 13 points and Nicholas Acosta added 12 points and eight rebounds.

TIMPVIEW (UTAH) 61, LEILEHUA 27

Michael Salazar scored 14 points to lead the Thunderbirds past the Mules.

Art Laurel led Leilehua with 14 points.

'IOLANI 51, KEA'AU 46

Liloa Nobriga scored 16 points and Case MIyahira added 11 points to lead the Raiders to an overtime victory.

The score was tied at 46-46 at the end of regulation.

David Howell led Kea'au with 19 points and Jude Dimizio and Kaika Harris each added 10 points for the Cougars.

MILILANI 62, NANAKULI 38

Donovan Olmos scored 11 points and Jordan Torres added 10 points to lead the Trojans.

Tyrone Cross led the Golden Hawks with 10 points.

THOMPSON 72, WAIALUA 69

Tristan Sealy scored 36 points and grabbed eight rebounds and hit the winning 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds remaining in overtime to lift the Sharks.

Michael Alexander added 22 points and nine rebounds for Thompson.

Brian Graziano scored 17 points, Edwin Rubio added 13 and Caleb Fore 10 for Waialua.

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com.