Maryknoll's Cianna Ochoco drives to the basket against Kamehameha. Evan Asato | SL

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Maryknoll players celebrate after defeating Kamehameha. Evan Asato | SL

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Kamehameha's Alohi Robins-Hardy puts up a shot in the interior against Maryknoll. Evan Asato | SL

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Kamehameha's Miki'ala Maio makes a pass to a teammate against Maryknoll. Kristen Izumigawa | Special to SL

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Maryknoll's Maia Laboy puts up a shot against Kamehameha. Evan Asato | SL

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Wed, Jan 29, 2014 @ Maryknoll

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Kamehameha

37

Maryknoll

41

Final	1	2	3	4
Kamehameha (8-4, 14-5)	4	12	9	12	37
Maryknoll (9-3, 19-5)	9	9	10	13	41

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

M. Laboy 14 pts  2/3 FTs

A. Robins-Hardy 11 pts  1 3pm  4/7 FTs

L. Delovio 4 tot  4 def

A. Robins-Hardy 11 tot  2 off  9 def

C. Ochoco 2 ast

S. Aleki 2 ast

There will be a new Division I state champion in girls basketball this year.

Maryknoll sank their free throws late in the game to knock out defending Interscholastic League of Honolulu and State Champion, Kamehameha 41-37 in the semifinals of the ILH Postseason Single Elimination Tournament at Maryknoll's Clarence T.C. Ching Gymnasium on Wednesday night. The Spartans claimed the ILH's second State Tournament berth for the Hawaii High School Athletic Association Hawaiian Airlines Division I Girls Basketball Championships. Kamehameha is ranked sixth in the ScoringLive/OC16 Girls Division I Power Rankings and Maryknoll is seventh. The Warriors end their season at 8-4. 

"It's a dream come true. We played in D1 last year and was on the short end of the stick. We came back this year and we knew what we had to do to get here. We knew we had the potential so we played our hardest and came out here and did our job. We wanted it so badly. We were pumped up for the game and we knew we had some up and downs. We played the game we were born to play, and we came out with a win. Kamehameha is a great team, they played hard and I give them a lot of credit. They're awesome and that was the team I personally looked up to because that's where I wanted to be the following year, which was this year," said Maryknoll's Maia Laboy, who finished with a team-high 14 points. 

"I think it's exciting. A lot of these kids, two or three years ago, they were playing Division II basketball and we wanted to challenge ourselves against the best teams in the league. We made a step up and we made progress last year, but I felt this was time for us to challenge for an ILH title and a state berth. At least we got the state tournament burden out of the way and now we can go and play for this ILH championship," said Maryknoll coach Chico Furtado. 

Both teams split the season series and the home teams prevailed: Maryknoll beat Kamehameha 35-33 on Dec. 21 and Kamehameha won the second time, 50-35 on Jan. 14. 

"Our first game we beat them, but we had some mistakes. Second game we lost and we knew what we did wrong after our game against Kamehameha we came off of a loss against Punahou too. We knew what they were going to do and we worked hard for it and broke everything down and played our game," said Laboy. 

"We were coming from a downer from Punahou, I think we were emotionally down a bit, but they played well," said Furtado, on the double-digit loss to the Warriors two weeks ago. 

The Warriors had an advantage over the Spartans on the glass and outrebounded them 26-13. Robins-Hardy grabbed 11 rebounds and Nicole Ka'aihue had eight rebounds. 

In the first quarter, Maryknoll took a 7-2 lead after Siena Shupe hit a 3-pointer at the top. Alohi Robins-Hardy hit a long jumpshot that was initially ruled a 3, but after consultation, the referees changed it to a 2-pointer. Maryknoll led 9-4 after the quarter.

In the second quarter, Kamehameha started to rally. Makana Aleki had a steal and kicked it out to Breann Nueku for a right corner 3-pointer and after that Kea Ryder had a steal and layup. Shupe hit another 3-pointer from the left wing to push the lead to 18-11. The Warriors cut it to four after Robins-Hardy banked a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to make it 18-14. Kanoe Marks-Mahoe had a fast break buzzer-beating layup to end the half and the Warriors trailed 18-16 at halftime. 

"They're going to be there. They (Kamehameha) have three, four kids from that state championship team. Halftime I thought we should've been up more than two. We battled in the second half and got up by six, I thought we should've been up by 12, we missed some wide open layups and 3's," said Furtado.

In the third quarter, Maryknoll jumped out to a 5-0 run. However, Kamehameha came back to tie the game at 25 after Ka'aihue hit a field goal in the paint. Ka'aihue was a force in the paint as she scored nine points, grabbed eight rebounds and had four blocks. Maryknoll took a three point lead, 28-25 after Cianna Ochoco hit a 3-pointer in the right corner. 

In the fourth quarter, Kamehameha tied the game at 30 after Nueku hit another 3 from the right corner. The Warriors took a 32-30 lead after Robins-Hardy was fouled as she made the layup. Laboy tied the game at 32 after she hit a baseline jumper. She hit another field goal to put them up 37-34. Robins-Hardy made two free throws to cut the deficit to one, 37-36. She scored six of her 11 points in the quarter and was a perfect 4-of-4 from the free throw line. Maryknoll went up 41-37 after Lexi Delovio hit 1-of-2 free throws. Robins-Hardy's 3-point attempt from the top of the arc fell short and Maryknoll secured the rebound for the victory. The Spartans shot 58.3 percent (7-of-12) from the free throw line in the quarter and 63.2 percent (12-of-19) for the game. 

"We missed front end and missed a chance to go up five. They cut it to one, we get a layup, back up three we had a chance to make it five, but missed front end again. We took that one timeout and told the kids down the stretch, take care of the ball, play 'D' and make free throws and game is yours. We made it kind of hard on ourselves, but again we rested on our defense and our defense has been pulling us up," said Furtado. 

Maryknoll travels across the street to play Punahou for the Postseason championship at Hemmeter Fieldhouse on Friday, Jan. 31. Both teams also split the season series and won on each other's home floor: Maryknoll won at Punahou by 10, 55-45 on Dec. 18, but Punahou returned the favor won at Maryknoll, 38-36 on Jan. 11.