Farrington's Molimau Heimuli puts up a shot against Mililani. Heimuli scored a game-high 24 points in a win over the Trojans. Sylvia Lee | SL

Purchase image 1 of 1

Sat, Jan 30, 2016 @ Mililani

---

Farrington

59

Mililani

50

Final	1	2	3	4
Farrington (8-2, 12-6)	10	18	14	17	59
Mililani (10-3, 13-7)	10	14	10	16	50

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

V. Meleisea 18 pts  0/1 FTs

M. Heimuli 24 pts  4/4 FTs

J. Lafitaga 8 tot  8 def

M. Heimuli 11 tot  2 off  9 def

J. Lafitaga 2 ast

M. Heimuli 2 ast

MILILANI— Moli Heimuli poured in 24 points to help lead Farrington over Mililani, 59-50 in the quarterfinals of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I playoffs at Mililani High School on Saturday night.

The Lady Govs advance to play sixth-ranked Roosevelt on Wednesday Feb. 3 at Radford's Jim Alegre Gymnasium for the semifinals and also clinch a state tournament berth. The Lady Trojans will play Kailua.

Jazmina Lafitaga hit a 3-pointer to give the Lady Trojans a 10-8 lead before Heimuli tied the game at 10 heading into the second quarter. Coach Tatupu called a timeout at the 1:35 mark following the 3-point shot.

The Lady Govs responded going on a 11-0 run, which started toward the end of the first quarter. Heimuli had a coast-to-coast uncontested layup to put Farrington up, 25-12 and Coach Basilio called a timeout.

"She is one of the post players that has the green light to handle the ball. Any opportunity we get to take a one-on-one, she has that green light and she did a good job," said Farrington coach Caroline Tatupu, on Heimuli taking the ball up the court.

"They came out aggressive in the zone and I think my girls clamped up with the excitement and the cameras. I hate to make an excuse," said Mililani coach Pat Basilio.

However, just when everyone thought Farrington was going to run away, Mililani went on a 9-0 run to bring themselves within three, 26-23.

"We had to settle our girls down and remind them to play our game, we had the lead, but the momentum was swinging toward their favor so we had to settle down and make better decisions," said Tatupu.

"We told them to play more aggressively upfront and we tried to attack their guards more. We were lucky on a couple of them with some bad passes, but that's what speeding up the tempo does," said Basilio.

Lafitaga scored eight of her 12 points in the first half and Kayla Torres chipped in nine of her 11 points.

Farrington led 28-24 at halftime.

Heimuli went to work in the third quarter, scoring eight points and was able to find open teammates after Mililani defenders started closing in on her. She had five assists for the game. Chantal Mailou added 13 points and seven rebounds and Lokelani Pacheco put in eight.

"It was good to take the defenders one place so that your teammates can get the open shots," said Heimuli.

"Over the past few weeks we tried to get her to understand her role to be more than a scorer. She draws a lot of attention so she creates opportunities for her teammates, yet she looks to score herself," said Tatupu.

"Our help-side rotation was so bad tonight and the basics and fundamentals got away from us," said Basilio.

Farrington maintained a double-digit lead throughout the fourth quarter before the Lady Trojans made a late push led by Velisa Meleisea, who scored 10 of her 18 points in the quarter.

"We stress defense and any adjustments we made defensively will work in our favor and we switched it up," said Tatupu.

Mililani, Kailua, Kaiser, and Kahuku will all battle for the final two spots into the state tournament.