Seniors give the best gifts.

At Saint Louis, that’s the truth. Aiva Arquette scored 19 points and Hayden Bayudan added nine as the top-ranked Crusaders escaped with a 44-37 win over No. 3 ‘Iolani on Thursday night at Father Bray Athletic Center.

Saint Louis improved to 6-1 in ILH play (12-1 overall) with another nail-biter. Fans were allowed back into the venue — restrictions permitted two spectators for each player — and they were treated to plenty of drama.

“It was back and forth tonight, so it was a good win. Every game, we want to take that step up, and I think we did that today,” said Arquette, who led Saint Louis with eight rebounds. “It was a great team win.”

Bailey Bumanglag and Jack Jones scored 12 points apiece for ‘Iolani (7-5, 3-3), which lost to the Crusaders for the second time in as many weeks. Freshman JJ Mandaquit finished with nine points, all in the second half.

Arquette was 6-for-6 at the free-throw line in the final quarter, while Bayudan was 2-for-3.

“It was just a knockdown, drag-out ILH game. They played tough and guys stepped up for them and guys stepped up for us. That was kind of an old-school ILH game,” Saint Louis coach Dan Hale said. “That was a defensive game, and we always talk about it. When we’re rocking and rolling, we can always put up points, but it’s going to be the defense in the end that carries us, and that happened tonight.”

The visitors, buoyed by the return of senior AJ Bianco, jumped to a 9-0 lead, getting a traditional three-point play in the post from Cole Schmidt and a fast-break layup from Bianco.

The lead increased to 14-4 on Arquette’s post bucket, and after he splashed a wing 3, Saint Louis had a 20-9 lead. Jones, a senior, kept the Raiders within striking distance by scoring nine points in the first half. Saint Louis led 20-13 at intermission.

Saint Louis’ halfcourt man-to-man defense shadowed Mandaquit, who came into the contest leading the ILH with 21.2 points per game. He went into distributor mode to help spark ‘Iolani’s third-quarter rally. Bumanglag’s layup tied the game at 22 and he followed that with a corner 3 to give the home team its first lead.

Sophomore Kache Kaio splashed a clutch 3 before the buzzer for Saint Louis, tying the game at 25 entering the fourth quarter.

Saint Louis regained momentum behind the 6-foot-4 Arquette. Another 3 by Bumanglag cut the lead to 33-32 with 2:52 remaining, but Arquette sank two foul shots and fed Bayudan on a give-and-go for a lefty layup. That gave Saint Louis a 37-32 cushion with two minutes to go.

Mandaquit drove for a bucket, trimming the lead to four, but Bayudan sank two foul shots for a 39-34 lead with 1:19 left.

After Bumanglag missed a 3, Bayudan missed the front of a 1-and-1.

Mandaquit then had two 3-point tries from the left corner and missed. After Arquette swished two more charity shots and Shoncin Revuelto made one of two, Saint Louis had a comfortable 42-34 lead with 14.8 seconds left.

Mandaquit was fouled on a 3-point try and made all three free throws with 8.4 seconds to go. Arquette closed out the scoring with his final two foul shots with 7.4 seconds to play.

Bianco added seven points and had a key deflection in the final minutes to end a crucial ‘Iolani possession.