MILILANI — Brooke Kurasaki made ‘em count down the stretch. 

Kurasaki scored a game-high 15 points and Akemi Kawamata netted 10 of her 12 points after halftime to help No. 8 Mililani rally to a thrilling 32-30 win over No. 9 Campbell Wednesday night. 

The Trojans (8-0) overcame a 12-point third-quarter deficit in front of a home crowd of about 450 fans to record their first win over the Sabers (8-1) since Dec. 17, 2019. 

Kurasaki tied the score at 30 with 49.7 seconds left when she hit the front end of a pair of free throws after a Campbell foul sent her to the line. She knocked down the back end to give her team its first lead since the 59-second mark of the first quarter and one that it did not relinquish. 

The senior guard made a return trip to the charity stripe about 30 seconds later after a defensive stop for Mililani and hit one of two free throws to make it a two-point game. 

Campbell had a chance to tie it or go ahead on its ensuing possession, but Jaynalyn Sotelo had her 3-pointer from the right wing rattle out before Kamai Lei Ringor's putback attempt also failed to drop. 

The Sabers had one final opportunity after they rebounded a missed Mililani free throw and called timeout with 3.6 seconds to play. They got the ball to Sotelo on the in-bounds pass, but she lost possession of it as she crossed mid-court and the final seconds ticked off the clock. 

Trojans coach Joanna Nicolas said she implored her team at halftime to dig deep over the final 16 minutes. 

"I told them basically that if we leave everything on the court tonight, no matter what the outcome, then we'll have no regrets and that if we play our game and we do what we practiced, I knew that we would be in it," Nicolas said. 

Things didn't start off very promising for the Trojans, who fell behind 7-0 less than two minutes into the contest. They responded with an 8-0 run of their own that was capped by a Kurasaki 3-pointer from the left wing. 

Campbell led by two after the first quarter and three at the intermission before it opened the second half with a 9-0 run to claim its largest lead at 26-14 with 2:57 left in the third quarter. 

Kawamata scored Mililani's first points of the second half when she drained a 3-pointer with 2:24 until the final stanza. Her runner in the lane bookended a 7-0 run by the home team that cut it to a 26-21 Sabers' advantage. 

After Aiesha DeWeever made two free throws to stretch it back to a seven-point cushion, Amelia McDaniel retaliated with a 3-pointer from the left wing and Kawamata pulled up from 14 feet with her baseline jumper to pull the Trojans to within 28-26 with 2:43 left to play. 

DeWeever came up with a steal then putback a Eliscia Jose miss to make it a two-possession game, but Kawamata came back with a 3-pointer on the other end of the floor to get her team within a point. 

Kurasaki then got to the line on the Trojans' next possession and converted both the tying and go-ahead free throw attempts. 

She pointed to a change Nicolas made on the defensive end that spurred the unlikely comeback. 

"I think switching up the defense to the 2-3 zone changed the momentum. That was important because they couldn't really score off the zone and our defense led to our offense," Kurasaki said. 

The Sabers were limited to 1-of-9 shooting from the field in the fourth quarter. They were outscored 13-4 in the final stanza. 

"I definitely think that that switch-up was what we needed," Nicolas said of the zone defense. "When we went into it, I was just telling them that we can't (give up) any easy buckets, so when we switched it up we just made sure that we stayed solid on the communication in and then that kind of helped us with the momentum on the offensive side," Nicolas said. 

Mililani registered nine of its 13 steals in the second half. It forced Campbell into 13 second-half turnovers, while it gave it away just twice in the final two periods after having committed 10 first-half turnovers. 

Nicolas attributed some of the sloppy ball-handling before the break to nerves. 

"I think in the beginning they were just a little bit nervous, anxious. There was a lot of energy going on, so told them to slow it down, make solid passes, use ball fakes and I think that really showed in the second half," she said. 

Mililani shot 4 of 6 from the field in the fourth quarter. It finished the game on an 11-2 run. 

Sotelo, who entered the game averaging a shade under 16 points per game, was limited to nine points, including just three after halftime. 

"She's a great player so I think slowing her down really helped us stop their momentum as well," said Kurasaki, who recorded six steals, five rebounds and one assist. 

Nicolas praised Kurasaki, an All-OIA West First Team pick a year ago, for coming through in the clutch. 

"Brooke is one of our biggest competitors; She just battles and pushes through. She's always in the gym, she always wants more reps, she's always working, so this ending right here, we knew it was in her and that she was capable of that. There's no question about how she will perform because she practices so hard day in and day out," Nicolas said. 

Cayden Parado paced the Sabers with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Sotelo tallied eight boards and Kamai Lei Ringor contributed six points, seven rebounds, three steals and a block in the loss. 

It was Campbell's first regular-season loss since Jan. 3, 2020 and ended a streak of 42 consecutive wins in OIA Western Division play. 

"We knew Campbell was gonna be our toughest competitor in the West, so we took them seriously from the jump," Nicolas said. "Hopefully we can keep riding this momentum into our last game of the season and into the playoffs, so I'm excited to see what happens for the rest of the season."

Mililani visits Radford (5-3) Friday to close out the regular season. 

Both the Trojans and Sabers have secured a first-round bye in the 12-team OIA tournament, which runs Jan. 24-29.