Mililani's Sarah Liva puts up a shot in the paint against Punahou. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Punahou's Keau Fey blocks a shot attempt by Mililani's Summer Bolibol. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Punahou's Hailey Motooka heads to the basket against Mililani. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Fri, Feb 14, 2014 @ McKinley

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Punahou

53

Mililani

48

Final	1	2	3	4
Punahou (11-1, 16-2)	11	13	12	17	53
Mililani (12-1, 23-4)	7	15	13	13	48

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

S. Liva 18 pts  10/11 FTs

H. Motooka 13 pts  1 3pm  2/2 FTs

S. Liva 18 tot  8 off  10 def

K. Fey 16 tot  2 off  14 def

S. Appleby 2 ast

K. Fey 2 ast

For the first time since 2011, third seeded Punahou advances to the State Championship game after holding off a resilient Mililani squad, 53-48 in the Hawaiian Airlines Girls Division I Basketball State Championships semifinals at McKinley's Student Council Gymnasium. Punahou will play top-seeded Lahainaluna tomorrow night at 7, while Mililani plays Hilo in the third place game at 5 pm. This sets up an anticipated 1-versus-2 matchup since Lahainaluna and Punahou are ranked No. 1 and 2 respectively in the ScoringLive/OC16 Girls Basketball Power Rankings. 

"They're tough, their cohesiveness and camaraderie and the way they play is tough. We're going to savor this for a little bit and get ready for them tomorrow and hopefully it will be a great game tomorrow," said Punahou coach Kevin Velasco, on his impending matchup with Lahainaluna. 

Punahou is seeking their eleventh overall State Championship and the last time they won the state title was back in 2008 when Mike Taylor was the head coach. He is currently an assistant on Kevin Velasco's staff. 

Hailey Motooka led Punahou with 13 points and six steals and Tyra Moe added 12 points and six rebounds. Keau Fey had eight rebounds and five blocked shots. 

Mililani's Sarah Liva scored a game-high 18 points on 10-of-11 shooting from the free throw line and grabbed 18 rebounds. Mililani managed to outrebound Punahou, 45-27. 

"We knew that her and Tyra were going to battle it out. You couldn't ask for anything more and she played her heart out there and so did Tyra unfortunately we came up a little short," said Mililani coach Patrick Basilio. 

"We knew she was going to be a handful and she's such a great athlete so we were trying to slow her down because she's so tough inside and so quick off the jump to get rebounds and just to minimize what we could was the game plan for us," said Velasco. 

Punahou took a 8-2 lead after Tyra Moe hit a field goal in the paint. Sarah Liva scored six of Mililani's seven quarter points, but Punahou led 11-7 after the first quarter.

Mililani rallied and used a 7-2 run to take a 14-13 lead after Mikaela Limper sank both free throws. Liva put the Trojans up three after a field goal from the left block to make it 18-15. Punahou scored five straight points and Ellie Uyeda hit a 3-pointer from the right wing to make it 20-18. Moe had a rebound and putback to make it 24-20, but Mililani's Jamie Yuki had a steal and layup and the Trojans trailed by two, 24-22 at halftime. 

"That's a credit to Pat (Basilio) and his Mililani team. They're tough, when you have kids like Limper (Mikaela), Liva (Sarah) and Appleby (Shantel) in there and you have to work for every single thing. We had to work and we were down at seven at one point. Our kids played through that in the ILH and they know and it helped us," said Velasco, on Mililani's toughness. 

Mililani jumped out to a 29-24 lead in the third quarter after Liva hit two free throws. Uyeda hit another 3-pointer near the top to make it 29-27. The Trojans went on a 6-2 run and Velisa Maleisea's rebound and putback made it 35-29, giving Mililani their largest lead of the game. 

"I think we were able calm down a little bit and settled down. The girls were able to play their game, I think once Punahou put the pressure back on and turnovers costed us a bit and we couldn't get the edge back after that," said Basilio. 

"We watched games and they have comeback and hit 3's and the next thing you know, Sarah goes off inside getting rebounds and putbacks and we were quite aware of what they could do," said Velasco. 

Hailey Motooka sparked a 7-0 run for the Buffanblu after she stole the ball and was fouled as she made the fast break layup to make it 35-32 after her free throw. She also had a steal and layup at around 11 seconds remaining to put Punahou up 36-35 heading into the fourth quarter. 

"She struggled a little bit in the first half you could see a couple of bad passes. That's the thing with her maturity as a senior, she settled down and made couple steals and made a basket and boom, our team started to run and I've always said she's the glue to this team with the way she goes is the way everyone else runs," said Velasco. 

Motooka was fouled and converted a 3-point play to start the fourth quarter to make it 39-35. Liva made it 39-37 as she banked a field goal from the left block. Punahou pushed the lead back up to five after Motooka hit a 3-pointer from the left wing. At the 4:33 mark, Astra Kidani was hurt and had to be carried off the court. Mililani managed to cut the deficit to three after Summer Bolibol hit both free throws and the Trojans called full timeout at 1:58. Uyeda went 3 of 4 from the free throw line to make it 49-41 with 43 seconds remaining. Bolibol managed to kick it out to Limper who hit a 3-pointer from the left corner as she was fouled for a rare 4-point play opportunity. However, Bolibol was hurt on the play and had to be carried off the court by her teammates. Limper made the free throw to make it 49-45 with 26 seconds remaining. Kandiah went 4 of 4 from the free throw line to push the lead to eight, 53-45. Yuki hit a 3-pointer from the right wing with 0.5 seconds left with the game already decided. 

"That's something we practice because we know how much it means. But it was big and key because Mililani could come back and close the gap," said Velasco on his team shooting 71.4 percent (10 of 14) from the free throw line in the quarter. 

Punahou shot 77.8 percent (14 of 18) from the free throw line while Mililani shot 80.9 percent (17 of 21). 

Mililani edged out second seed Konawaena, 54-51 last week and gave the Interscholastic League of Honolulu champion all they could handle. This was their first semifinals appearance in the State Tournament. 

"After that Roosevelt loss, it could've gone either way. They chose to stick to it and they persevered and I'm proud of these girls, they fought til the end and that's all you can ask. At some point, I told the girls you have to enjoy the ride sometimes they're hard on themselves. I think once we beat Konawaena we sort of let out a sigh of relief, but just knowing that they came this far they were able to settle down and we really pushed to win, we really practiced hard this week, but credit coach Velasco and their girls," said Basilio.