The Dolphins landed the title. But bigger fish await.

The No. 3 Academy of the Pacific boys basketball team beat No. 4 Maryknoll 55-49 to capture the Na Menehune Holiday Classic at Moanalua on Thursday.

Arkadiy Mkrtychyan scored 17 points and Artur Mkrtychyan added eight, but it wasn’t about them. They scored most of their baskets in the offense, which was created by a pressing defense that put Maryknoll (8-2) in a hole from the outset.

“From day one we have been stressing that defense wins championships,” AOP coach Wally Marciel said. “Everybody wants to be a scorer, but we win with defense.”

AOP (8-3) ruled the paint in the first quarter, getting four baskets on putbacks, one more field goal than Maryknoll had in the entire quarter. The Spartans didn’t score from anywhere but the line until Kaleb Gilmore hit a jumper with 25 seconds left. AOP answered immediately to go into the second quarter up by nine.

After committing six turnovers in the first 8 minutes, Maryknoll settled down and only gave it away twice in the next 8 minutes. But AOP still bettered them, turning it over only once.

Maryknoll got the margin down to five in the second quarter before the Dolphins exploded to run into the locker room with a 13-point lead. They ran it to 17 after three quarters when Maryknoll missed four layups and got only two field goals.

“We can’t be missing layups like that” Maryknoll coach Kelly Grant said, “Layups and free throws, we can’t do that.”

The Spartans turned it around against an AOP team trying to run out the clock, forcing the Dolphins into eight turnovers in the fourth quarter, cutting the margin all the way to four before time ran out.

“We have to go work on some press break,” Marciel said. “The fourth quarter just shows you that Maryknoll is a strong team, they are never going to give up. Our whole league is tough.”

Isaiah Dowdell led the Spartans with 12 points, half of them from the line. Maryknoll went to the line 31 times, hitting 20. AOP was 11-for-20.

AOP benefited from the shot clock used in this tournament, hitting five baskets at the buzzer, four of them in the second half. Wilson Macleod had two of them, with the others by Kamana Keahohou, Bret-Maverick Kanoa and Mattia Raebel just before halftime.

“That’s something we don’t practice; we were really fortunate on those,” Marciel said. “The game would have definitely gone a different way without them.”

Moanalua took third place in the tournament with an easy 42-33 win over St. Joseph.

An ILH school has won the tournament championship every year since 2006 except last year, when El Toro (Calif.) beat AOP for the prize. Maryknoll won it in 2006, Kamehameha in 2007 and ‘Iolani in 2008 and 2009.

Bigger things await both teams. AOP opens ILH play on Jan. 3 at No. 2 Punahou. Maryknoll visits No. 1 Kamehameha. Both teams lost to Punahou in the preseason and AOP also lost to Kamehameha.