OIA Girls Basketball
No. 10 Trojans beat Mules to clinch West title


  



Tue, Jan 8, 2019 @ Mililani


Final 1 2 3 4  
Leilehua (11-3, 11-5) 7 611933
Mililani (12-1, 17-5) 12 16 8 1147
D. Sablay 16 pts  3 3pm  5/6 FTs
K. Kamelamela 22 pts  6 3pm  0/4 FTs
M. Ayers 9 tot
J. Bowen 3 ast

MILILANI — Dahlis Sablay scored 11 of her team-high 16 points in the second half and No. 10 Mililani downed visiting Leilehua, 47-33, Tuesday night to clinch the Oahu Interscholastic Association West girls' basketball title in the regular season finale.

The Trojans (10-0) earned a first-round bye for the 12-team OIA Division I tournament, which begins Monday. The Mules (8-2) needed to win to force a three-way tie for first and a tie-breaking coin toss that would have included Radford (9-1), which will be the West's second seed. The top two seeds from each division draw first-round byes. The Mules dropped to third.

"We knew that," Trojans' first-year coach Michael Oyama said of possible scenarios of the outcome. "I didn't tell the girls that. I knew this was win, or roll the dice."

Leilehua's Kaylen Kamelamela led all scorers with 22 points, including six 3-pointers. She helped the Mules nearly erase a 15-point halftime deficit with a 13-point second half. Her sixth 3-pointer of the game pulled the Mules to within 39-33 with less than two minutes left. But the Mules were forced to foul in the closing minutes to regain possession; the Trojans made 8 of 10 free throws in that span to hold off the Mules.

"Unbelievable game by her," Oyama said of Kamelamela. "All guts. Her shot from NBA range maybe? Outstanding game by her."

"She's a shooter, she's a gamer," Leilehua coach Elroy Dumlao said of Kamelamela. "She has that will to win. She came out, she knew what she had to do. I told her, ‘if we're going to lose just go out shooting. Go out and do your thing.'"

Leilehua's Kaylen Kamelamela (center) led all scorers with 22 points, including six 3-pointers. Michael Lasquero | SL    Purchase image

The difference came in the first half when the Trojans blew out to a 28-13 lead at the half. Turnovers by the Mules led to 13 points for the Trojans.

"They came out with a lot of energy," Dumlao said of the Trojans' first half. "We couldn't match that. We played a little bit slow; the passes were slow. It just didn't work out. Bad chemistry, when somebody plays with energy and somebody's not ... We cannot win with that much turnovers."

The difference for the Trojans?

"Composure," Sablay said. "Before the game, I walked into the locker room and told the girls ... actually we agreed to it that composure was going to be the key tonight. If we keep our composure, we'll be all right."

The Trojans kept that poise even when Kamelamela was single-handedly rallying the Mules.

"Kaylen Kamelamela is a really great player," Sablay said. "So either way, we just had to keep communicating with each other on defense and we'd be good."

Kylie Bagay contributed 10 points off the bench for the Trojans. Madison Ayers led Mililani with nine rebounds.

The top six teams from the West advance to the Division I tournament. They finished in this order: Mililani, Radford, Leilehua, Kapolei, Waianae, Nanakuli, Campbell and Nanakuli each finished 4-6, but the Golden Hawks have the head-to-head tiebreaker.

The West title is Mililani's eighth and first since 2017.



Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].




Show your support

Every contribution, no matter the size, will help ScoringLive continue its mission to provide the best and most comprehensive coverage of high school sports in the state of Hawaii and beyond.

Please consider making a contribution today.

ADVERTISEMENT


IMAGE GALLERY



MORE STORIES

Hawaii Prep's Samura leads All-Hawaii Division selections

Brooke Samura averaged 34.6 points per game in her seniorr campaign, including seven games scoring over...

Lahainaluna's Donez earns All-Hawaii Division I POY honors

Senior guard Lola Donez averaged 26.9 points per game in MIL play and led Lunas to semifinal finish at...

Hirayama delivered in much-needed win for Trojans; Ho powering Buffanblu with prolific junior season

The Mililani junior LHP struck out 10 batters in six innings against Aiea Saturday, while the Punahou...

No. 4 Moanalua sweeps Roosevelt to cap undefeated OIA East season

Na Menehune were too much for the Rough Riders on senior night to finish the OIA East season unbeaten...

Mililani's Vail, Patterson headline All-Hawaii Boys Soccer selections

Seniors Skyler Vail and Parker Patterson named Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year, respectively.

Punahou sweeps All-Hawaii Girls Soccer top honors

Carly Cormack repeats as Offensive Player of the Year; Laulea Ah Mook Sang named Defensive POY.