Kalaheo's Kupaa Harrison puts up a shot against Moanalua. Harrison led the way for the Mustangs with 19 points, 8 rebounds and 10 steals. Peter Caldwell | SL

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022515_1305_HHSAA1_038.JPG - Peter Caldwell | SL

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SALT LAKE— Kalaheo pulled away from Maui, 77-65 in the opening round of the New City Nissan/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I Boys Basketball State Championships at Moanalua High School on Wednesday night.

The Mustangs, who are third in the ScoringLive/OC16 Power Rankings, will move on to play top-seeded Punahou in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 7 p.m.

The Mustangs beat the Buffanblu earlier in the preseason, 41-40 on Dec. 30.

"Two great teams will go at it, we have a ton of respect for them and we're going to decide the game on the court. The team that executes and takes care of the ball will win the game," said Kalaheo coach Alika Smith.

Four Kalaheo players scored in double figures— Kaleb Gilmore led the way with 22 points, Kupaa Harrison scored 19 and Kekai Smith and Zach Marrotte scored 12 each.

"We're going to need that. We have two of the better players in the state in Kaleb and Kupaa, but once those guys start coming with them and hitting shots, we're going to be tough to beat, but we have to get to that point," said Smith.

Kalaheo turned up the pressure to force 39 Saber turnovers. The Mustangs had 24 steals for the game—Harrison with 10 and Gilmore with six. The Mustangs committed 18 turnovers for the game.

"We worked a lot on defense and knew if we wanted to get far in this tournament, we have to play defense first and work from there," said Gilmore.

"They have active hands and their length is incredible, they are tall in every position and they made those passes difficult and I have some smaller guards and they struggled with that at times," said Maui coach Steven Vega.

Maui took the lead briefly after Ginel Matco's and-1 to make it, 8-7. Kalaheo started pulling away after scoring six-straight points to close out the first. Gilmore hit a 3-pointer to beat the buzzer to give the Mustangs a 23-14 lead going into the second quarter.

"We didn't make them pay in our press like we wanted to and when we did, we didn't finish. It was a combination of that and a slow start that was disturbing to us as a coaching staff," said Smith.

Zach Marrotte's layup put Kalaheo up by 10, 29-19. The Mustangs led by as much as 12. Tristan Nichols scored 13 points in the first half to lead the Sabers as Kalaheo led 36-26 at halftime.

The 6-foot-4 Nichols led Maui with 22 points on 7-of-10 shooting and shot 8 of 12 from the free throw line.

"He's a big boy and when he holds his place on the block, he's tough to stop. We fronted the post and got backside help and we did a better job in the second half," said Smith.

"We start off looking for him first. Kalaheo adjusted how they were playing him and we turned it over. He got a lot of rebounds and ran the floor, I think he did a great job staying aggressive," said Vega.

The Sabers got within eight, 36-28 after AJ Baguyo's layup. However, the Mustangs blew it wide open to go on a 18-5 run after Gilmore's steal and layup as Kalaheo managed to cruise the rest of the way.

"We got good stops on defense and got easy points on offense and that helped us get a 20-point lead and didn't look back from there," said Gilmore.

Maui, the Maui Interscholastic League runner-up, will play Moanalua at 3 p.m.

"The younger players will gain a lot from this and they see where the bar is now," said Vega. "Next year they know how hard they have to work in practice and what they have to do to get here. We have to make them hungry to get back here."