Sometimes less is more for Leilehua's Joseph Gouty.

The 5-foot-9 junior guard helped the eighth-ranked Mules to a dominating 57-40 win over visiting Mililani on a chilly night in central Oahu.

Leilehua was ahead for all but the first 0:48 of the game. Gouty hit his first of two 3-pointers in the first half to open the scoring and closed out the quarter with his fastbreak layup.

Gouty asserted his presence in the second quarter, when he scored 10 points. His second trey extended the Mules' lead to 23-14 midway through the period and showed some flash with a fake-behind-the-back pass, teardrop runner to cap a 17-4 run later in the second.

"We just kind of let him do his thing," Leilehua coach Pat Wetzel said of Gouty. "Sometimes with guys like that — he's a really outstanding player, —so what we really try to do is, the less we talk to him sometimes the better he is, so we try not to bombard him with information or things like that."

Gouty's only bucket in the third quarter came on an isolation play. The Mules cleared out of the paint and Gouty split a pair of defenders before hitting another teardrop. He also had a game-high five assists.

"He played really hard, he was composed, he didn't let the emotion of the game get to him and he did a really good job keeping his composure," Wetzel said.

Gouty credited his teammates — notably junior forward Koa Kauhi, who had eight points and nine rebounds and guarded Mililani's 6-foot-8 Clarence Gathers defensively.

"He did real great containing the 6-8 guy, so we're all real proud of him," Gouty said of Kauhi. "

Both Wetzel and Gouty quickly turned the conversation to the Mules' upcoming game against Kapolei Wednesday.

"We're 1-0, but we can't rest on our laurels, we need to go ahead and come back to practice on Monday and compete for Kapolei on Wednesday," Wetzel said.

Gouty echoed his coach's sentiment.

"We're just going to keep going after the next game and the next game and the next game and keep that mentality," Gouty said.