Damien's Shaun Apiki puts up a shot in traffic against Hanalani. Apiki had a season-high 23 in the win over the Royals. Brien Ing | SL

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022115_BRI_4757.jpg - Brien Ing | SL

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Reserve Shaun Apiki scored a season-high 23 points with 16 rebounds to help host Damien clinch a state berth over Hanalani, 69-52 in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II postseason tournament finale Saturday afternoon.

The 6-foot-3 sophomore forward scored 21 of his game-high 23 points in the second half with senior bigs Kapiina King and Rocky Mori dealing with foul trouble. King scored 14 of his 16 points in the first half and fouled out with 5:29 left in regulation.

"Once (King) fouled out all the pressure was on me," said Apiki. "I always have to live up to him, but today I did pretty good and did my job."

The frontcourt combination of Apiki, King, Mori and reserve Brandon Galang helped the Monarchs (11-3) dominate in the low post against Hanalani (10-5). Damien outrebounded the Royals, 40-33, and also notched five blocked shots, all in the first half.

"Our bigs are good," said Apiki. "We probably have the best bigs in all of Division II. That's one of our best points of our team. We utilized it today and we did pretty good and we won."

"I knew that size was going to be an issue," added Hanalani coach Keoni Haole. "It always is, we're always the smallest team. Whether it was Rocky (Mori), King, or the two reserve bigs, they're all big. I knew that they were going to give us trouble."

Defensively the Monarchs limited Hanalani to a 30.1-percent clip (16-for-52 shooting). Senior guard Reggie Liunoras led the defensive effort, suffocating Hanalani's season-leading scorer Jeff Schakke the entire night. While guarding Schakke, Liunoras did not give up a made field goal and also drew two offensive fouls.

"Jeff's been our top scorer the whole year, so it can only be expected that they face guarded him the whole game," said Haole. "Their guy, Reggie, he did a good job —  guarded Jeff like a football player."

Junior point guard Zane Pantil led the Royals in the loss with 16 points, three boards, three assists and three steals. Chas Kubo added 15 and Schakke had 10 to round out Hanalani's scorers in double figures.

Damien will join Hawaii Baptist as the two ILH teams in the Division II state tourney, which beings next Thursday.