Kapolei's Christopher Dillard heads to the rim for a layup against Campbell. Sylvia Lee | SL

×

020413_BBKB_SL-7285.jpg - Sylvia Lee | SL

Purchase this image
4x5 5x7 8x10 image download

KAPOLEI-After nearly squandering a 14-point third-quarter lead, Kapolei finished strong against visiting Campbell in a 51-39 win to secure the O'ahu Interscholastic Association Red West division title Monday night.

On a night they celebrated their 11-player senior class, the Hurricanes got double-digit contributions from three of them - 11 points from Zachary Reeves and 10 each from Christopher Dillard and Elijah Gipson - to complete the regular season with a 10-0.

Gilbert Dayanan led all scorers with 15 points for the Sabers.

Kapolei had clinched at least a share of the title and the top seed last week, but now has its focus on the 12-team OIA Red tournament, which opens Friday. The top two seeds from each division - Kapolei and Pearl City in the West and Kalaheo and Moanalua in the East - draw first-round byes and will host quarterfinals Saturday.

"We still have a long way to go," Kapolei coach Gary Ellison said. "We don't know who we're going to play yet. Kahuku or Leilehua….(Kahuku), that's when they play well, is in the playoffs. And Leilehua, we went up there last week and they gave us a hard time."

As for the Sabers (6-4), the outcome had no bearing on their standing. They would've been the West's fourth seed regardless because it would've lost a tie-breaker to third-place Mililani (7-3) and has won the tie-breaker for fourth with Leilehua (6-4).

The Hurricanes blew out in front early with an 11-0 run after the Sabers took a brief 2-0 lead. A 3-pointer by Brannon Cody Bantolina at the end of the first quarter pulled Campbell to 16-9.

But Kapolei continued to play good defense en route to a 27-18 halftime lead.

The Hurricanes opened the third with a 5-0 run to take a 32-18 lead, their widest margin of the game, before the Sabers began chipping away. Dayanan scored six of his team's last 12 points of the third period to pull the Sabers to 37-33.

After the teams went scoreless for the first two-and-a-half minutes to open the fourth quarter, Dayanan drove down the middle and scored on a layup to pull the Sabers, once down by 14, to with two.

But the Hurricanes got hot offensively and defensively - Campbell's Justin Tago-Su'e and Solomon Leaeno were playing with four fouls each by this time - and outscored the Sabers, 14-4, the rest of the way.

"They picked it up in the end," Ellison said. "Campbell came to play. Hats off to them, they played well. We were struggling, then the last four minutes of the game we started coming along."