Campbell junior Julien Parado blocked a shot attempt by Radford senior Angel Asaah during an OIA West girls basketball game on Jan. 13. Parado finished with 14 points as the Sabers went on to beat the Rams, 39-37. Brian Bautista | SL

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Brian Bautista | SL

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When it comes to the Campbell and Radford girls basketball teams, there is plenty toughness to go around. 

The Sabers hung on to edge the visiting Rams last week, 39-37, in a hard-fought OIA West game last Thursday out in Ewa Beach. Both teams put out a gutsy effort in the back-and-forth affair, each with its own style of play. 

Campbell leaned on the duo of junior Julien Parado and sophomore Aliyah Bantolina, who combined for 25 points and all six of the Sabers' made 3-pointers.  

As for Radford, with reigning All-OIA West Player of the Year Angel Asaah back for her senior season, it's no secret the Rams are looking to ride her ability and experience as far as she can take them. 

But it was clear early on that the Sabers weren't going to make it easy for Asaah. 

After the Rams won the opening tip, Asaah put up a shot in the paint, but it was blocked by Parado. Although Asaah was able to gather the loose ball and score on her second try, Parado's blocked shot in the opening seconds resonated resoundingly with her teammates. 

"We were kind of scrambling in the beginning, but once we pulled it together we were working together trying to block out Angel and then just trying to cover up whatever was open," said Parado. 

Campbell used a number of defenders on Asaah, who had five points by halftime but finished with seven for the game. 

"Most people had chances to play on Angel here and there, so we all had pointers for that one person so that we could stop Angel and that happened in the second half," Bantolina explained. 

On a few occasions, Asaah initiated some hard — but clean — contact in the post against the smaller Saber defenders. 

They did not shy away from it, however, especially Parado. 

"She plays post-guard, she's one of the ones that can," Campbell coach Jazmine Corpuz said of the 5-foot-7 Parado. "She's a versatile player, can play in and out; we're kind of blessed in that angle, we have a few guards that can bang on the inside and play on the outside also."

Asaah drew a number of fouls while in the act of shooting, but struggled at the free-throw line, where she was 3 of 7. 

"Angel is a good player that knows how to use her body and draw fouls and that's what she did. She came here to do that and she did her job for the most part and it challenged us to make the adjustments — and we did," Corpuz said. "We did when it mattered the most and I'm glad that we were able to get the reward to kind of feed that fire to continue to work on those things, because it's obvious that when we go against bigger posts — we're guard-heavy, but we make it work and we do what we gotta do and tonight it showed."

Aside from the pair of Parado and Bantolina, Taysia Molina-Shulte tallied six of her eight points in the first half. She also grabbed a couple of offensive rebounds in the second quarter that led to four second-chance points. Another guard, Sydney Patanapaiboon, came off the bench to contribute six points and a few assists. 

"It was a little chaotic in the beginning. Some of our starters picked up some early fouls so we had to go with who we had, we had to switch ‘em up and it kind of adjusted our defensively plan a little bit, but it's okay because it shows that the other girls that need to be in there and that were in there can do it also," Corpuz said. 

As well as the Sabers played, the Rams were right there. And they did it with just six players available. Three of their nine players listed on the team roster were out of the lineup Thursday. 

"It's that COVID Russian roulette every day," quipped Radford's Charles Chong, the OIA West Coach of the Year back in 2020. 

"We weren't full strength tonight — we had two girls out — but I'm really proud, I'm really proud of the Lady Rams; I thought they played a heck of a game," Chong said. "They had a game plan and they made adjustments during the game and they played with a lot of heart, so I'm really proud of what the ladies did."

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Perhaps no one displayed more toughness than junior Mailana Mattos, who had to leave the game midway through the third quarter after she was inadvertently poked in the eye by a Campbell player. Mattos returned near the end of the third quarter and went on to score eight of her team-high 14 points in the final eight-plus minutes of the game. 

"Mailana, she's a warrior," Chong said. "I knew from when she was a freshman she's a competitor and she's got the physical attributes to actually take advantage of that attitude, so yeah, big game for her, I thought she did a great job."

Sophomore Jirah Villanueva contributed to the cause with a pair of triples. Villanueva scored five of the Rams' eight first-quarter points; she finished with 10 points and found teammate Khloe Williams under the basket with a timely pass that led to the tying basket with 23 seconds to play. 

"I thought our point guard, Jirah, did a great job taking care of the ball and everybody gave a great effort tonight," Chong said. 

It was the first loss of the season for Radford (6-1), which fell from first to third place in the OIA D1 West standings. The top two teams after the 10-game regular season earn a first-round bye in the 12-team league tournament, but Chong knows that much remains to be settled in the next two weeks. 

"It's a game, it's not the game, so it was a great regular-season game," he said.  

The Rams will look to get back in the win column this week and remain in contention for one of the two byes when they host Waipahu (3-3) Wednesday and visit Kapolei (5-2) Friday. 

Campbell (6-0) moved into a tie for first place with Mililani (6-0), but isn't getting ahead of itself just yet. 

"We have so much more planned that we want to get to and there's a lot more games to come. I'm glad this game was close because it was a challenge for us, but there's a lot more work we need to put in," Bantolina said. 

The Sabers and Trojans will square off Wednesday in central Oahu. Tip-off is scheduled for approximately 6 p.m. Spectators are not permitted.