Hawaii Baptist stuns Seabury Hall, will face top seed Kohala in semis

Brien Ing | SL

Hawaii Baptist started off fast then needed late game heroics to stun fourth seeded Seabury Hall, 63-62, advancing to the semifinals of the Heide & Cook/Division II boys basketball championships.

Eli Shibuya poured in 30 points and added six rebounds, four assists and two steals for the Eagles, going point for point with the Spartans' Bromo Dorn, who finished with 26 points of his own.

"This was a huge night for us," said Trent Mitchell. "But we want to get better than last year, we want first. That's our goal."

The Eagles raced out to a 24-14 lead after the first quarter, then saw the Spartans rally with in second, trimming the margin to just three at the break.

That margin of victory held through three quarters of play, but Seabury Hall finally broke through in the fourth, taking its first lead of the game on a Zach Devane layup with 7:00 left in the game, 53-52.

Dorn inched the Spartans ahead 57-56 after making a pair of free throws with 3:01 to go, and that lead held through the 1:04 mark, where Eli Shibuya attempted a shot, got the ensuing rebound but fell on the play and was called for travelling, giving the ball back to Seabury with just 1:04 left and the Eagles still down a point.

On the ensuing possession, Kobe Garcia was met by the Eagles right at midcourt, and Trent Mitchell stepped up with perhaps the defensive play of the game, poking the ball away from Garcia and racing the other way for a layup that would give Hawaii Baptist the lead for good.

"With all the crowd it can get to you, but I just tried to calm down and boom, got the steal," said Mitchell of the play. "That got us hyped up and more energy, everyone on the bench got rowdy, its crazy."

From there, Shibuya did most of the heavy lifting at the foul line, making 4 of 6 free throws to put the game just out of reach, though Sebastian Peterson's three at the final buzzer swished through to trim the final margin to just one.

Up next for Hawaii Baptist is a semifinal matchup with Kohala, the top seed in the tournament, who needed to rally from an early deficit to topple Kalani, 55-45.

The Cowboys fell behind 17-10 after one quarter but found their footing in the final three quarters, outscoring the Falcons in each period.

Layden Kauka struggled early, but posted a game-high 22 points by the final buzzer. He added six rebounds, three assists and three steals to his final stat line.

Two other Kohala players reached double figures, Jaydon Hook (12 points, 7 rebounds) and Layden's brother Landon, who finished with 11 points and six boards.

Of note, the two teams faced off a year ago in the third place game of the tournament, a game that Kohala won going away, 78-46.