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Brandon Ching | ScoringLiveFebruary 25, 2022, 6:08am
Thu, Feb 24, 2022 @ McKinley
KAKAAKO—A new state champion will be crowned Saturday.
No. 4 Mililani led big and held off a rally from No. 3 Maryknoll to win, 49-43 in the nightcap of the Heide & Cook/HHSAA Division I Boys Basketball State Championships quarterfinals at McKinley's Student Council Gymnasium Thursday.
The Trojans (16-1 overall) win their 14th-straight game and will face No. 2 Iolani after the Raiders blew out third seed Hilo, 57-21.
"We get rewarded by playing another ILH team. We got some guys who can play a little bit more tomorrow to help the starters. We're glad we're there because this team deserves the opportunity but we know we're going up against a great Iolani team," said Mililani coach Garrett Gabriel, who graduated from Maryknoll in 1986.
Maryknoll won back-to-back state titles in 2019 and 2020 and was seeking its third-in-a-row since there was no season in 2021.
"I love Maryknoll basketball. It was an honor to play them because I know how good they are."
Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Moanalua following the first game between top seed Saint Louis and fourth seed Baldwin.
Dylan Flanders led Mililani with 11 points, six rebounds, and shot 3-of-4 from 3-point territory. J Marxen added 10 points, Trey Lieb and Jackson Mayo each chipped in eight.
"I was rolling and getting open and my teammates were passing it to me and I just trusted them. When they gave it to me, I knocked down the shot," Flanders said.
Justin Yap led the Spartans (11-7 overall) with 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting as Maryknoll faces the Vikings in the fifth-place semifinals at McKinley.
The Trojans shot 17 of 39 (43.6 percent) from the field and 8 of 20 (40 percent) from the perimeter.
"I think we had to get some penetration. They (Maryknoll) are very sound defensively, trying to protect the middle. It's hard at times the way they play their defense. Once we got inside, I told them to jump stop, not necessarily shoot it, but to have the guys relocate because we have shooters. That helped when we find open people on the wings," Gabriel said.
"Our guards are really great at finding the open man and passing the ball," Flanders added.
Zion Milare hit a triple from the right corner before the buzzer sounded as Maryknoll trailed, 11-8 going into the second quarter.
Fabian Camacho had a tip-in 13 seconds into the quarter for the Spartans' only points. Flanders hit a 3-pointer from the right wing and Creighton Ofsonka hit both free throws to make it, 16-10. Flanders went glass for his second 3-point attempt and Marxen drove down the lane to the rim during Mililani's 10-0 run for a 21-10 lead at halftime.
The Trojans bombed four 3-pointers in the third quarter and Marxen's 3 from the left wing extended the lead to 16. Hunter Marumoto made the team's only 3-point field goal, but Flanders' triple from the left wing made it 33-17 with 3:14 to go.
Maryknoll began to chip away to close out the third on a 9-0 run. Parker Grant hit his pair of free throws and Logan Dias converted a steal and layup. Yap was fouled in transition as he made the basket and his free throw cut the deficit to nine. Parker had a tip in off Yap's miss as the Spartans trailed, 33-26 heading into the fourth.
Grant, Marumoto, and Kaneshiro each hit their pair of free throws to get within one. Dias had the steal and Yap finished in transition for their first and only lead of the game at the 5:27 mark to cap a 17-0 scoring run that started late in the third quarter.
"It's big, we struggled toward the end taking care of the ball. It had to do with Maryknoll pressuring and trapping up. Until we figured it out and we hit a big 3 to put us up four, I think that was the key. The kids keep making plays and finding ways to win," Gabriel said.
Lieb hit a jumper to reclaimed the lead for the Trojans and they never relented. Mayo swished a 3-pointer to give Mililani breathing room, but Yap canned another triple from the top of the arc to get the Spartans within one.
"They have been pretty resilient this season, but we never really had a lot of close games. A lot of our games were by double digits. This was a great lesson how to play when the game is close and how to take care of the ball. Playing the ILH teams, it comes down to possessions," Gabriel said.
"Bottom line it was coaching. Whenever we called timeouts, they told us not to panic. That's what we did. They made their runs, we made ours," Flanders said.
Lieb hit both free throws, Flanders converted a bucket near the block and Marxen nailed two jumpers to put the Trojans up nine. Yap got Maryknoll within six and then four with 3-pointers but Mililani closed out the game from the free throw line.
Mililani out rebounded Maryknoll, 36 to 22, Mayo hauled down 11 boards.
The Spartans shot 14 of 46 (30.4 percent) from the field and was 6 of 22 (27.3 percent) from 3.
Parker Grant was Maryknoll's next leading scorer behind Yap and finished with six points, eight rebounds, two steals before fouling out.
No. 2 Iolani throttles Hilo to reach semifinals
Hilo-native JJ Mandaquit scored a game-high 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting and had three assists and three steals in the Raiders' lopsided win over the Vikings.
Aaron Claytor added 11 points, Kaimana Lau Kong grabbed 11 rebounds, and Jack Jones dished out five assists and hauled down seven boards.
Iolani outscored Hilo, 21 to 2 in the second quarter and closed out the first half on a 14-0 run to go up big, 37-9 at halftime.
The Raiders led by as much as 39 in the second half.
Iolani racked up 12 steals, led by Bailey Bumanglag's four takeaways and pressured Hilo into committing 20 turnovers.
Peyton Pana, Hilo's leading scorer, was held to three points and departed the game early with an ankle injury. He had a team-high six rebounds.
Rayson Padilla and Logan Querubin each had six points in the loss.
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