On the schedule it was still a regular-season meeting, but Friday's Oahu Interscholastic Association Western Division tilt between ninth-ranked Campbell and fifth-ranked Leilehua certainly had the feeling of a high-stakes playoff game.

The Mules kept their unbeaten streak in tact with a 45-36 win over the visiting Sabers, who also entered the game with an unblemished 9-0 record.

A packed house of about 700 fans at Paul T. Kobayashi Gymnasium — including the Leilehua band — was on hand for senior night and the much-anticipated showdown that would determine the West's top seed in the upcoming league tournament.

"The fans were awesome," Mules' coach Pat Wetzel said. "We got to bring down both sides (of the bleachers) — I don't think we've done that since 2003 when we had a playoff game here against Mililani — the crowd was awesome, we had the band here, DJ and everything. We had the full on nightclub scene going on tonight."

The hype surrounding the game, however, got to the hosts early on. Leilehua failed to score on its first 12 possessions and didn't get on the board until there was just 50 seconds left in the first quarter.

"We were a little frustrated in the first half," Mules guard Joseph Gouty said. "Offensively, we weren't ourselves. Defensively, we did OK and then in the second half, our coaches told us to zone everything out, play our game, play our Leilehua way, play with humility and all that."

The score was tied at 15 at halftime, but Gouty and the Mules took over in the third. The junior point guard, who was held scoreless in the first half, scored the first six points of the second half and finished with a game-high 17 points.

"We were able to get in the key a little bit, Joe got a little bit going in the third quarter, when he was able to get some baskets in transition and half court," Wetzel said. "He's very elusive, so he was able to do his thing and everybody just contributed.

The Sabers made a run to start the fourth quarter and chipped away to pull within 35-31 on Lamart Dudley's tip-in with 4:10 to play. However, the Mules sealed it at the free-throw line, where they made 10 of 16 in the fourth quarter. They were 20 of 28 on free throws for the game.

"We were very fortunate to beat a quality Campbell team on senior night and now we're able to rest a little bit and get back to fundamentals, get back defensively to doing what we need to do to beat whoever we play on Saturday in the second round of the playoffs," Wetzel said.

The Mules will have a first-round bye in the 12-team OIA Tournament and can punch their ticket to states with a win in the quarterfinal round next Saturday.

"It's good to watch these boys pull it out and when you get into the playoffs you've got to be able to win ugly and I thought that's what we did today: we won ugly," Wetzel said.