Saint Francis center Supilani Mailei controls a rebound against University Lab Wednesday night. Steve Erler | SL

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Wed, Dec 21, 2016 @

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University Lab

49

Saint Francis

57

Final	1	2	3	4
University Lab (7-5, 16-9)	16	6	8	19	49
Saint Francis (10-0, 26-4)	17	11	17	12	57

K. Ng 14 pts  1 3pm  3/6 FTs

R. Kaleikini 18 pts  2 3pm  4/6 FTs

MANOA – Saint Francis had three players score in double digits to defeat defending Division II state champion University Lab School, 57-49, Wednesday night to give the host Saints their first Holiday Hoops Classic championship.

Kameron Ng led with 14 points followed by Noah Kurosawa's 11 and Supilani Mailei's 10 for the Saints.

Radyn Kaleikini led all scorers with 18 points for the Jr. Rainbows and Travis Kaloa added 10.

"We're playing at a pretty good level right now," Saints coach Ron Durant said. "I think we missed a lot of easy shots today, but did enough to get by."

The teams combined for 12 3-pointers, each with six. Kurosawa led with three. But it was the inside game that made the difference for the Saints. Mailei, a 270-pound defensive tackle in football, grabbed eight rebounds, four on the offensive side, three of them putbacks.

"We played a lot of D-1 schools (in preseason)," Durant said. "We played Kalaheo, Saint Louis, Kamehameha, Lahainaluna. We didn't have a chance to salvage an inside game. (Mailei) is listed as 6-1 on the roster, but I think he's more 5-10. We wanted to get him active today. Going into our ILH season, he's going to have to be a factor."

Whatever his height, Mailei played big for the Saints, although he admitted to being a bit fatigued from three days of play.

"It was hard," he said. "I had to drink a lot of water today because the past two days I was getting tired from just putting (my) body on people."

Against Saint Louis, he had to go up against the massive Joshua White, a 300-plus-pounder who also is a lineman in football. That helped him gauge where he needed to be to compete.

"Playing against Saint Louis, they had that big guy," Mailei said. "I had to use my strength so I could get rebounds over him."

Mailei did all his damage despite early foul trouble. He drew his third foul with 1:13 in the first half and eventually fouled out in the fourth, but the game pretty much secured for the Saints.

"It was really unusual," Durant said of his foul trouble. "I don't know if he was tired or what, but this was unusual for him."

The Jr. ‘Bows kept the came close in the first quarter, trailing 17-16, but struggled to get the ball inside against the Saints in the second quarter. While the Saints were able to score inside and outside, the Jr. ‘Bows' only points came on 3-pointers by Kaleikini and Keawe Tong, as the Saints took a 28-22 lead into the half.

"They have good shooters on the perimeter, they got good ball-handlers, so you can't really collapse any defense on them," ULS coach Walter Quitan said. "You have to play them straight up and that kind of gives them some single stuff down low."

The Jr. ‘Bows lost all their starters from last year's state title team.

"We're trying to get better right now," Quitan said.

Kaleikini was the closest to an inside presence for ULS with seven rebounds, but he also had two 3-pointers. Otto Taylor had six boards, two of them resulting in putbacks.

Ironically, the teams will meet again Jan. 4 for the ILH season opener.