HHSAA Boys Basketball
Saint Louis dominates Mililani to win first state title since 1986


  



Sat, Feb 26, 2022 @ Blaisdell


Final 1 2 3 4  
Mililani (13-0, 17-2) 2 915834
Saint Louis (11-2, 20-2) 13 9 18 1757
A. Arquette 25 pts  5/5 FTs
J. Kipapa 7 pts  1 3pm  0/3 FTs
A. Arquette 12 tot  4 off  8 def
L. Pine 6 tot  4 off  2 def
T. Lieb 5 ast

KAKAAKO— The quest ended with a koa trophy.

No. 1 and top-seeded Saint Louis conquered No. 4 and second seeded Mililani, 57-34, to capture the Heide & Cook/HHSAA Division I Boys Basketball State Championship at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center Saturday.

The Crusaders (20-2 overall) snap the Trojans' 15-game winning streak en route to their seventh overall state title.

"I told them that my goal is to bring this thing back and make Saint Louis relevant in basketball again. I couldn't do it without the support of my assistant coaches, the administration, alumni, the list is long, but the main thing is the boys bought in and this doesn't happen if they don't," Saint Louis coach Dan Hale said, who won a state title with Punahou in 2008.

Aiva Arquette, named the state tournament's Most Outstanding Player, saved his best game for last with a monster double-double performance. The 6-foot-4 senior scored 25 points, pulled down 12 rebounds, and was a perfect 5 for 5 from the free throw line.

"This is so awesome, we had to face a lot of adversity this season. Saint Louis hasn't been to the championship game for a long time. We wanted to bring it back for the alumni, the school, and our fans," Arquette said.

"Aiva just took it to another level. I know he's a fabulous baseball player, but part of my heart would love to see him play college basketball. He stepped up and that's what leaders do," Hale said of Arquette.

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Cole Schmidt, the team's defensive specialist, added 11 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field and was 3 for 3 from the charity stripe. His defensive work does not show up in the stat sheet, but he scored 18 points in two state tournament games. He had seven in their semifinal win over Baldwin.

"He takes the best player from the other team and locks them down. He's so long and bothers guys and knows his role. He was ready to go and it was on him and he knew what to do. We don't have a great season without a guy like Cole," Hale said.

"We have so much talent out here, so I don't have to do much besides defense. Defense wins championships at the end of the day. We practice it so much and Saint Louis is all about hustle and being that hustle guy makes those championships possible," Schmidt added.

Lauvai Pine's free throw gave Mililani their only lead of the game and tied the game with another at the 4:28 mark, but the Trojans would go 0 for 11 from the field.

"Coming into this game, we know they are a terrific shooting team, we had to run them off the line and we did that," Arquette said.

Arquette knocked down a pair of free throws and Schmidt was fouled off the inbounds and made the basket. He completed the three-point play.

"Aiva and AJ have a lot of pressure in the post. All I do is the easy work, they attract so much pressure that all I have to do is lay it up. Be aggressive and backdoor cutting," Schmidt said.

Arquette followed up with back-to-back buckets for a 11-2 lead.

HHSAA ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM - DIVISION I

JJ Mandaquit, Iolani
Quintan Akaka, Baldwin
Hayden Bayudan, Saint Louis
Jackson Mayo, Mililani
Cole Schmidt, Saint Louis

Most Outstanding Player: Aiva Arquette, Saint Louis

"We didn't have an answer for him and we couldn't hit shots. That's the gauntlet we had to get through and came up short. I'm still proud of the boys, but Saint Louis is damn good," Mililani coach Garrett Gabriel said.

Jayden Kipapa was fouled on a 3-point attempt, but missed all three free throws. Arquette hit a jumper to give Saint Louis a 13-2 lead going into the second quarter.

Kipapa broke the scoring drought with a layup at around the 6:36 mark. Arquette kicked it out to Shoncin Revuelto, who knocked down a 3-pointer from the corner. Creighton Ofsonka hit the Trojans' only 3-point field goal of the quarter to trail, 16-7.

Kipapa who led the team with 4 points in the first half nailed a jumper, but Arquette ignited the Saint Louis crowd after throwing down a two-handed flush in the paint for a 20-9 lead.

"It was the heat-of-the-moment type of thing. It was special," Arquette said.

Schmidt was fouled with 4.0 seconds to go and made both free throws to give the Crusaders a 22-11 lead at halftime.

Lauvai Pine and Arquette traded buckets to open the third quarter until Trey Lieb hit a 3-pointer from the left wing to get Mililani within eight. AJ Bianco put the Crusaders back up by 10 after being fouled, but Jackson Mayo was fouled as he made the putback and his three-point play got the Trojans within seven.

"We had to save him for the fourth quarter," Gabriel said of Lieb's foul trouble. "It's one of those damn-if-you-damn-if-you don't games. Shots weren't going down for us that normally goes down. I told them, ‘You win with class, you lose with class and we lost to the better team tonight."

Lieb hit two jump shots in the quarter to cut the deficit to six, but Mililani could not get any closer. Arquette completed a three-point play and Pupu Sepulona's drive pushed the lead back to double digits.

Hayden Bayudan broke out of a shooting slump to finish with nine points and added four assists. Bayudan went 0 for 9 from the field through six quarters, but got into the scoring column with a layup to put Saint Louis up 12 and hit a jumper that beat the buzzer to give the Crusaders a 40-26 lead going into the fourth.

"Last night the game wasn't asking for me to be aggressive. I had to impact the game in different ways. It's a mature game and mindset. I was aggressive this game, I wasn't hitting in the first half, but I stayed with it. I knew my team needed me to hit shots and I was grateful my shots were falling in the second half," Bayudan said.

"What got lost last night was he didn't score, but he played tremendous defense and he brought the ball up. We really needed that. He bought in and said, ‘I don't care if I score a point or not, as long as we're winning.' I told him to be ready tonight because not every night is going to be like that where you don't score a point. He was absolutely ready and turned on the jets," Hale said.

The Crusaders poured it on in the fourth and outscored the Trojans 17 to 8. Saint Louis started the final period on a 7-0 run. J Marxen broke the run with free throws, but the Crusaders pushed it in transition went on a 10-2 scoring run to lead by as much as 27.

Both teams emptied their benches to let the reserves play.

The Trojans hit eight and six 3-pointers against Maryknoll and Iolani respectively, but shot 3 of 18 (16.7 percent) from the perimeter tonight. Mililani finished 12 of 43 (27.9 percent) from the field for the game.

Saint Louis was exactly 50 percent (22 of 44) from the field and had one of their best free throw shooting games finishing 12 of 15 from the charity stripe.

Lieb and Kipapa each had seven points for the Trojans and Pine added six points and six boards in the loss.

Mililani was seeking its first-ever state title in school history.

Saint Louis won their preseason matchup back on Dec. 23, 63-61 in overtime.

The Crusaders won titles under legendary coach Walter Wong in 1957, 1961, and 1966-68. The late Kaipo Spencer led Saint Louis to its 1986 state title.



Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].




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