King Kekaulike's Brandi Carillo puts up a shot attempt as Moanalua's Lachae McColor defends. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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020714_kekmo768C6036.jpg - Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Brandi Carillo scored a team-high 17 points and Dasya Tavares added 15 to help King Kekaulike rally past Moanalua, 54-51, in a first-round game of the Hawaiian Airlines/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I Girls Basketball State Championships Friday night at McKinley's Student Council Gymnasium.

Na Alii rallied from a 30-17 halftime deficit to improve to their record to 10-5. They will play No. 3-seed and Interscholastic League of Honolulu-champion Punahou in a 3 p.m. quarterfinal Saturday at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center.

"We showed a lot of heart and our team, they worked hard," King Kekaulike coach Cy Peters said. "They worked hard to get here, they worked to prepare for this and they didn't quit. They fought until the end and didn't quit."

Tavares hit a 3-pointer about midway through the fourth quarter to give Na Alii a 46-45 lead. However, Moanalua scored the next four points on back-to-back buckets by LaChae McColor to reclaim a 49-46 lead.

"We just believed more (in the second half)," said Carillo, a senior guard. "At halftime we kind of had our pump-up speech and then we came out and we went all out, because if we lost it would have been our last game, so might as well go out with a bang."

Linzee Buwa's layup with 2:55 to play pulled King Kekaulike back within one and Carillo made a pair of free throws to put her team back ahead, 52-49. They did not relinquish the lead the rest of the way and outscored Moanalua in the fourth quarter, 23 to 8.

"On Maui, we've been down like this before, so our coach just told us that if we really believe and we really want this then we would go all out, just no regrets, just keep going no matter what and we did that and we came back," Carillo said.

Moanalua had several chances to tie it in the final minute, but Buwa grabbed a rebound with a second remaining and was fouled. McColor led all scorers with 24 points.

King Kekaulike, the runner-up from the Maui Interscholastic League, arrived about 17 minutes before tip off due to transportation issues.

"We were late kind of because we had some setbacks, so warming up took a while and then first quarter was our nerves — we were so scared — then in the second quarter we came back and got rid of the nerves," Carillo said.

Na Menehune, who are ranked ninth in the ScoringLive/OC16 Girls Basketball Power Rankings, end their season at 10-4.