Dakota 34, Pearl City 24: Pearl City’s defense did everything it was supposed to against Erika Lawson, not letting her get off a shot until 5:43 remained in the third quarter.

But No. 4-ranked Dakota had other scorers step in and played smothering defense to beat Pearl City 34-24 in a matchup of NUIC division winners to win a Class 1A girls basketball regional title.

Lawson had five points, but Alexys Cleaver had a team-high nine, Mikaela Schroeder had another strong game with seven and Brianne Boals had six for the Indians.

“How many teams can go out and have your best player and leading scorer not even get a shot off for two and a half quarters and still get a win?” Dakota coach Kevin Cline asked.

“A lot of kids stepped up and played big.”

The Wolves played a diamond-and-one in the first half and a box-and-one in the second with either Codie Buss or Makenzie Johnson chasing Lawson denying her the ball.

“It was nice to see everyone step it up and take shots,” Cleaver said.

Pearl City made just seven field goals on the night. The Wolves’ biggest problem was the same one that plagued them in their matchup with Dakota on Dec. 5, a similar game won by Dakota, 37-27. They weren’t able to knock down mid to long-range jump shots.

“We’ve got to be able to hit that open shot from 15-20,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to hit it.”

The win continued a great season for Dakota (25-1) and ended one for Pearl City (24-6), which finished two shy of the school record for wins set last year.

“It’s nice, but it also feels like kind of a relief,” Cline said.

“When you have a great season like this, you at least want to get that regional. You don’t want to be that great team that’s state ranked and gets knocked off without even a regional title.”

Pearl City made 8 of 10 free throws, but wanted to get to the line more.

“We played pretty good defense, and we usually shoot free throws pretty good, but tonight that wasn’t enough,” coach Ron Johnson said.

- Jerry Anders, GateHouse News Service