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Kalani Takase | ScoringLiveFebruary 17, 2022, 5:35am
Wed, Feb 16, 2022 @ Moanalua
SALT LAKE — Different night, different style.
Same result.
One day after it shot the lights out, No. 6 Mililani put the clamps down defensively in a 43-26 win over No. 7 Kailua in the title game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I boys basketball tournament at Moanalua Wednesday night.
A crowd of about 500 fans were on-hand for the match-up of unbeaten teams and top seeds out of the Eastern and Western Divisions. Ultimately, the Trojans (13-0) never trailed and outscored the Surfriders (13-1), 26 to 12, in the second half.
It is just the second OIA basketball championship for Mililani and its first since 2008.
"I tell you what, it's special because of the type of kids we have," Trojans coach Garrett Gabriel said. "(They) bought in, hard work during the summer and just trying to get them to know that you gotta put in the time to be successful; it just doesn't happen."
When Gabriel watched his team receive its OIA championship plaque, it marked the culmination of a seven-month process that began back in the summer with a lot of hope and optimism.
"I knew we would have a pretty good team watching us during the summer, playing in some of the different outside leagues and whatnot and just by seeing them compete I thought we had some players, so I'm not surprised, but I'm just very happy for them because they've worked very hard," Gabriel said.
Perhaps no Mililani player was working harder Wednesday night than Jackson Mayo. The senior drew the unenviable defensive assignment of guarding Kailua's prolific scorer, Jonny Philbrick, who entered the contest with a scoring average of 16.2 points per game.
Unenviable for most. But not Mayo.
"I'm always up for the challenge. He's shown that he can be a great player so I definitely had to take that challenge (for) the team and my teammates had my back the whole way," Mayo said. "I knew they were gonna be stepping up and helping."
Philbrick was coming off of a 14-point effort Tuesday night in a Surfriders' win over Roosevelt in the tournament semifinals. Last Thursday — in the final game of the regular season — Philbrick torched previously-unbeaten Kahuku for 29 points.
"We knew how great of a player he is, so I had to deny," Mayo explained. "I was denying off the ball, trying not to get it back to him, but he got it. But when he did have it, my teammates were helping out and so that really helped my confidence being able to pressure up on the ball."
Mayo limited Philbrick to only seven points, well below his average of 16.2 points per game. Kailua's 26 points were, by far, a season-low mark and nearly 30 points below its average scoring output prior to Wednesday (55.5 ppg).
"He's been our unsung hero; Not enough (credit) because a lot of people put a lot of things on points, but he's one that I always tell ‘em, ‘When you shut down or hold somebody under their (average), to me, that's scoring points and so you average 17 points in my eyes because of what you've done the whole season.' " Gabriel said. "He's tremendous — his maturity, his leadership — I mean, I'm just blessed to have a kid like that on this team, to be honest with you."
Mayo forced a five-second violation about midway through the opening quarter — one of four turnovers by Kailua in the first eight minutes.
The Surfriders had 10 turnovers by halftime and 16 for the game, while the Trojans turned it over just six times.
Philbrick's running banker kept the Surfriders within 8-6 of the Trojans after the first quarter. However, Dylan Flanders had a putback and Mayo made a couple of free throws to cap an 8-2 Mililani run that turned a 4-all tie into a 12-6 advantage just one minute and 15 seconds into the second stanza.
Kailua answered with an 8-2 run of its own that was spurred by a Philbrick bucket and capped by Japheth Lilo's layup off an assist from Reece Matsukawa to cut it to a 15-14 game with 2:11 left in the first half.
Gabriel called a timeout — his first of the game — at that point. Mayo said the discussion during the stoppage was about reassurance.
"(He said), ‘We're fine.' We weren't playing our best game and we were still up by one (point), so that just shows how much we could go on from there," Mayo said. "So we just kept our heads in the game and knew what we could do and we just trusted that the whole way."
A putback by Creighton Ofsonka gave Mililani a 17-14 lead at halftime.
The Trojans separated in the third quarter, which they opened with a 4-0 run — including the first point of the game for leading scorer Trey Lieb (15.5 ppg), who was coming off of a season-high 27-point performance against Kahuku, in which he hit six 3-pointers, in Tuesday's semifinal round.
Mililani — which made 10 3-pointers in the 66-56 win over the Red Raiders that punched its ticket to Wednesday's title game — outscored the Surfriders, 11 to 3, in the third quarter.
Kailua clawed its way back to make it a two-possession game on a Brayden Unten putback with 2:16 left to play, but the Trojans made 11 of 12 from the free-throw line in the final 2:06 of game time.
Ofsonka was a perfect 6 for 6 at the line; Mililani was 15 of 19 as a team.
Ofsonka finished with a game-high 10 points off the bench. Of the 10 Mililani players who got into the game Wednesday, eight of them scored at least three points. J Marxen had seven points and Jayden Kipapa and Mayo added six each. Kipapa also recorded four of Mililani's 11 steals. Lauvai Pine and Dylan Flanders scored four points each, while Flankers grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
Lieb, who was mostly guarded by Philbrick, was held to a season-low three points in the win.
"We got our scorer watching their best scorer, you know what I mean, and this is three days in a row — he's tired," Kailua coach Wally Marciel said of Philbrick. "All year we been looking for guys — next guy, step up, next guy, step up — it was a struggle tonight for us."
Gabriel said the balanced scoring and numerous contributions on both sides of the ball against the Surfriders Wednesday was indicative of the depth that he possesses this year.
"It's good when you have depth. You guys guys coming off the bench and they all can dribble, shoot; so it makes things a little bit easier for us in that sense, teams can't do a lot of things maybe they wanna do, but this is the first year I've had this type of depth and it showed. It helps when you play good teams," Gabriel noted.
Noa Donnelly led Kailua with eight points and nine rebounds. Ethan Kunz had four points and six rebounds and Lilo added four points and five rebounds off the bench.
Marciel liked what he saw from his team in the first half, but tipped his proverbial cap to the Trojans for their second-half adjustments.
"I thought we matched up pretty well in the first half, but credit Mililani with their strong defense, took us out of our sets and then we just couldn't score. I mean and then they spread the floor and that was our goal to get a lead and then kind of spread the floor and move it out, but credit them — their defense was solid," Marciel said.
Mayo was five years old the last time Mililani won an OIA boys basketball championship.
"Yeah, long time," he said. "It means a lot. It means a lot for the community. I mean, it's not just us; it's the fans supporting, it's a whole team effort, so it means a lot for the community and for us."
Kailua was seeking its fifth OIA championship and first since it won the D2 crown in 2013.
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