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Twain Wilson

Leilehua basketball  •   #2  G  Senior

In just about two years' time, Twain Wilson has left an indelible mark on the Leilehua boys basketball program. 

Since his arrival on the Wahiawa campus from South Carolina in the second semester of his sophomore year, Wilson has made quite the impact both on and off the court for the Mules.

Leilehua sixth-year coach Chad Townsend can recall the exact moment that he first met Twain Wilson and his younger brother, Tyree, then a freshman. 

"They first transferred in, we just passed by each other in the hallway and I just asked, ‘You guys play ball?,' " Townsend pondered. 

" ‘A little bit,' " Twain Wilson offered. 

He was being humble, it seemed. 

As the story goes, it was a literal slam dunk when Townsend first caught a glimpse of Wilson's abilities on the hardwood. 

"Twain comes out first day and just throws one down. I said, ‘Alright, we're good to go,' " Townsend laughed. 

It was a lasting impression, to be sure, but what Wilson has done since then has been just as remarkable. A year ago he was the team's second leading scorer at 11.7 points per game and went on to earn All-OIA West Second Team honors and Honorable Mention All-Hawaii distinction.

This season, however, Wilson has taken his play to another level. The 6-foot shooting guard leads the entire OIA in scoring average and ranks among the leaders statewide at 19.4 points per game. He netted a career-high 31 points last week Monday in a 73-67 double-overtime win over then-No. 5 Kailua. Two nights later he pumped in a game-high 25 points to lead Leilehua to a down-to-the-wire 49-48 win over then-fourth-ranked Mililani in the OIA championship game. 

"Last year as a junior he was actually very skilled already, so it's nothing new to us what he's doing right now, it's just that he deferred a lot to the other seniors we had," Townsend said. 

Townsend added that Wilson would often take a back seat — on his own accord — to then-seniors Zelston Militante and Pule Atualevao, who were later tabbed as All-OIA West first- and third-team selections, respectively. 

"He didn't quite have that real killer instinct yet. We would see it some games — we saw flashes of it last year — but sometimes he's so unselfish that he took a step back to the seniors and gave the ball up to them," Townsend shared. 

It has been a different mindset for Wilson this year, however. 

"The biggest jump for him this year is just that killer instinct on both ends of the court. Sometimes if there's another guy on the (opposite) team that scores a lot, I don't want to put Twain on him because I don't want him in foul trouble, but he asks to guard him. He wants to be tasked with that and he takes it upon himself to lead by example that way and that's one of the bigger impacts he has on the team, is that he raises everybody else's play," Townsend said. 

Wilson's ability to score points is hard to argue, but his ability on the defensive end of the court sometimes get overlooked. 

"Not many people know this but he's also one of the team leaders in steals and blocks," Townsend pointed out. "Everybody sees that he scores a lot of points for us, but he's also tasked with defending some of the (opposing) team's better players, or even their best player, and he's a very good lockdown defender and very unselfish."

To Townsend's point, Wilson tallied five steals and block (along with four rebounds and three assists) in the OIA semifinal victory over Kailua. He followed that up with nine rebounds, four assists and two steals against Mililani in the title game. 

Against the Surfriders, Wilson shot 9 of 15 from the field and was even more clutch at the free-throw line, where he made 10 of 12 and helped clinch the win with three free throws in the final 11 seconds of play. 

"He knew that that night they were trying to run him off the (3-point) line and put a lot of pressure on him, so he found another way to score by taking it to the hoop and drawing fouls and those free throws were big — they really helped us pull away," Townsend said. 

Townsend described a bit of Wilson's varied skillset. 

"He's one of those guys that offensively can score at all three levels: 3-point, mid-range and at the rim. His burst is unreal — he's probably one of the more athletic players in the state — and he's just very smooth. Very smooth jumpshot and whether he's off-balance or on, the shot just looks the same all the time," Townsend said. 

There are times that Townsend wishes that Wilson would be "more selfish," but almost in the same breath, he noted that it's just not in Wilson's nature. 

"Both he and Tyree have been a blessing for us because they've bought in from day one and they're total team players — team-first guys who have bought into the program and they're awesome," Townsend said. 

In a twist, it was Wilson's unselfishness that led to the game-winning bucket — a corner 3 by Trystin Stevens — against the Trojans last Wednesday. Wilson drew the attention of two Mililani defenders before he dished the ball to Stevens, who drained the go-ahead triple with 5.3 seconds to play. 

"I think the most special thing about Twain is he's very unselfish. He's always pumping up his teammates and even though I tell him, ‘I want you to take this shot,' (but) he's smart and if he draws two guys, he trusts his teammates and he'll give it up — just like he did in that Mililani game; He has that trust in his teammates," Townsend said. 

Despite the "killer instinct" that he has developed, Wilson is about as easy-going as they come, Townsend said. 

"He's one of those guys that even before the game he's smiling. He doesn't (show) much facial expressions and he just has a calmness to him that is always the same. We could be scrimmaging at practice and he'll have the same expression on his face as a championship game — he doesn't get ratted — and I think that has an effect on the team, too; They see how calm he is and that nothing's too big for him," Townsend said. 

Wilson has displayed that "unshakeable" trait throughout his two years on the team, but none more so than last week's wins over Kailua and Mililani, Townsend said. He noted that against the Trojans, Wilson was predominantly guarded by LeCedric Brown, whom they often employ against an opposing team's top offensive threat. 

"Both teams were trying to take him out of the game — face-guarding him and just playing good, hard, physical defense on him. LeCedric is one of the best defenders in the state — he's tough, he's quick, he's athletic — and Twain was still able to make plays and shoot a good field goal percentage. He found ways to get it done and some of those shots were unreal that he made against Mililani," Townsend said. 

Although he may be laid back in nature, Wilson is anything but when it comes to his work ethic. Townsend described some of the dynamic between the Wilson brothers in practice. 

"Twain is a little bit more of the serious brother — he's not real serious — but Tyree is the typical younger brother a little bit and some practices Tyree will be joking around and I get mad at him and then I see Twain say, ‘Come on, man. I told you, man,' you know, just being that that older brother in a good way, not yelling or bullying him around, but holding him accountable, so they have a real nice relationship. Tyree is very respectful of Twain as well, so it's a good dynamic between both of them and the rest of the team," Townsend laid out. 

The victory over Mililani gave Leilehua its second OIA championship in program history. Its only other league crown came in 1988. 

"These kids are close and that's one of those things that you can't coach. They just have that bond on and off the court. There's no outcasts, they're all together. Off the court they hang out, play video games and the biggest thing is the relationship they have. They trust each other on the court, they know what each other is going to do and there's no negativity, no off-the-court stuff that I have to fix with any of them, so it's a pleasure coaching these guys," Townsend said. 

Leilehua (12-1) moved up a spot to No. 4 in this week's ScoringLive Power Rankings and is seeded second behind two-time defending champion Saint Louis in this week's Heide & Cook/HHSAA Division I State Championships. 

Wilson and the Mules will play No. 10 Kahuku (12-2) in a quarterfinal round game Thursday at Saint Louis. Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m. at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletic Center. 

BOYS BASKETBALL

Blaize Arakawa, Saint Louis II — Scored 17 points in a win over Punahou II 

Espn Bennett, Le Jardin — Scored 18 points in a win over Assets 

CJ Bostic, Kalaheo — Scored 31 points in a loss to Kahuku 

Noa Donnelly, Kailua — Scored 16 points with 10 rebounds, five blocks, two assists and one steal in a loss to Leilehua

Timothy Dorn, Mililani — Scored 20 points with 11 rebounds and seven blocks in a loss to Leilehua 

Keaka Farias, Assets — Scored 17 points in a loss to Le Jardin 

Jaron Gilmore, Kalaheo — Scored 19 points in a win over Campbell and scored 25 points in a loss to Kahuku 

Kache Kaio, Kahuku — Scored 21 points in a win over Kalaheo 

Blaze Kaululaau, Nanakuli — Scored 20 points in a win over Kailua 

Shetland Kazama, Aiea — Scored 18 points with 10 rebounds and three steals in a loss to Kaimuki 

Iosefa Letuli, Kaimuki — Grabbed 16 rebounds with six points, three assists and one steal in a win over Aiea 

Daysen Lupica, Kaimuki — Scored 19 points with five assists, five steals, four rebounds and one block in a win over Aiea 

Maddox Pung, Kailua — Scored 29 points with four assists, two rebounds and one steal in a loss to Leilehua 

Santi Sarbeland, Aiea — Grabbed 15 rebounds with three points, three blocks and one assist in a loss to Kaimuki 

Eli Shibuya, Hawaii Baptist — Scored 26 points in a loss to Le Jardin 

Mathew Shigetani, Hawaii Baptist — Scored 19 points in a win over Hawaiian Mission and scored 25 points in a win over Damien 

Harmon Sio, Kaimuki — Scored 19 points with three rebounds, three steals and one block in a win over Aiea 

Jackson Swirsky, Le Jardin — Scored 18 points in a win over Hawaii Baptist 

Noah Takahata, Hanalani — Scored 17 points in a loss to Le Jardin 

James Taras, Punahou — Scored 17 points with three rebounds, two blocks and one assist in a loss to Saint Louis