Mililani's Talia Brandner drives to the basket against Nanakuli. Brander had a team-high 14 points for the Trojans. Jim Lebeau | Special to SL

Purchase image 1 of 1

Wed, Jan 14, 2015 @ Nanakuli

---

Mililani

48

Nanakuli

40

Final	1	2	3	4
Mililani (11-2, 12-5)	8	16	13	11	48
Nanakuli (10-3, 10-5)	13	7	3	17	40

C. O'Brien 15 pts  3/4 FTs

T. Brandner 14 pts  4/6 FTs

NANAKULI - Despite turning the ball over 21 times, No. 10 Mililani muscled its way past Nanakuli, 48-40, Wednesday night at the Hugh Taufaasau Court.

The win puts the Trojans (8-0) a win away from clinching the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I West top seed for the 12-team postseason tournament. The Golden Hawks (5-2) still have a realistic chance at the division's second seed.

"It was huge for us," Mililani coach Patrick Basilio said. "I think it will leap-frog us into the playoffs."

Talia Brandner and Kayla Torres led the Trojans with 14 and 12 points, respectively. But the real damage by Mililani came from its bigs, Shantel Appleby and Summer Bolibol, who combined for 19 of the team's 32 rebounds. Bolibol (6 points) had 11 boards and Appleby (5 points) added eight. Torres and Velisa Meleisea (5 points) followed with four rebounds each.

"I think that was one of the main differences for us," Basilio said. "We kind of keyed on that because this is one of the teams - height-wise - we're almost even, so we tried to take advantage of that aspect, but ball security is a big issue with us. We knew they were going to come out pressuring and stuff."

Basilio said ball protection was a problem earlier, but he saw improvement in that area entering the Nanakuli game. "But I think it's back to the drawing board," he said. "We have to work a little bit more heading into the playoffs."

Appleby managed to play aggressively to get her eight boards, despite early foul trouble. She eventually fouled out in the fourth quarter.

"She actually had a few games where she was in early foul trouble," Basilio said. "But she's been able to work her way back into the game. I think her mentality, as far as playing with fouls, she's learned to adapt to it."

Nanakuli coach Randy Kauhane anticipated Mililani's size being able to matchup with his team's.

"Our game plan was to get their bigs in trouble and hopefully the rebounding part would bounce our way after that," Kauhane said. "But, it's tough."

Ciera O'Brien led the Golden Hawks with 13 points and had three steals, scoring off one of them.

Nanakuli finished the first period with a 5-0 run to snap an 8-all game. The Golden Hawks maintained the lead with 3:17, 1-14, in the second quarter.

The Trojans then used an 8-0 run to take the lead for good. Nanakuli pulled to 22-20 with six second in the half on a free throw by O'Brien, but Mililani got off the final shot of the half by Brandner to make it 24-20 in spite of 15 turnovers in the first half.

Mililani closed the third quarter with a 9-0 run to increase its lead to 37-23. Nanakuli outscored Mililani, 17-11 in the fourth, but the damage was already done.

Nanakuli labored under the boards, especially on the offensive side. It got five offensive boards, but failed to score of each one. Meanwhile, Mililani scored on 4 of 9 offensive rebounds. The Golden Hawks also did not help themselves with 8-of-20 free throws.

"That's how the game goes," Kauhane said. "You gotta finish. You gotta make free throws, you gotta make layups. Some positive stuff at the end; we played defense like we wanted them to. But in the end, it comes down the making the baskets and we missed a lot easy opportunities."