HHSAA Girls Basketball
League champions Iolani, Campbell to square off in semifinals


Brandon Ching | ScoringLive
February 2, 2023, 1:17am

  

Wed, Feb 1, 2023 @ McKinley

Maui

35

Iolani

50

Final 1 2 3 4  
Maui (10-3, 13-5) 11 89735
Iolani (12-3, 20-5) 16 9 20 550
Callie Pieper 16 pts
Jacy Anne Dela Cruz 15 pts  2 3pm
Mele Sake 13 tot  4 off  9 def
Naiara Bal 6 tot  1 off  5 def
Mia Frye 4 ast
Jordyn Luna 4 ast


Top-ranked and seeded Iolani rolled by the Sabers from the Valley Isle, but the Sabers from Ewa Beach await them on Thursday.

No. 1 Iolani and No. 3 Campbell square off for the second time this season in the same venue, but this time in the Heide & Cook/HHSAA Division I Girls Basketball State Championships semifinals.

The ILH champion Raiders rolled by MIL runner up and eighth-ranked Maui, 50-35 in the first game of the double header at McKinley's Student Council Gymnasium. In the nightcap, the fourth-seeded OIA champion Sabers pulled away from BIIF runner-up and fourth-ranked Waiakea, 64-53.

Callie Pieper scored 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting and grabbed six rebounds to lead Iolani. Paige Oh added 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting and Mele Sake hauled down 13 boards.

Jacy Anne Dela Cruz scored 13 of her 15 points in the first half on 6-of-13 shooting to lead the Sabers. Jordyn Luna, who scored 15 points in the opening round against Radford on Monday, finished with nine.

"The game plan was to close out and not let them shoot any 3s. Every 3-pointer they shot was frustration on the bench. They're good players if you leave them and we had to tighten that up and fix our mistakes," Iolani coach Dean Young said.

Dela Cruz scored seven points to close out the first quarter and trailed 16-11 following Sake's shot.

The Sabers closed the gap to one, but the Raiders went on a 9-0 run to go up 10, 25-15 following Haylie-Anne Otha's 3-pointer from the left wing. Dela Cruz scored the next four points and hit a 3-pointer from the wing to trail, 25-19 going into halftime.

"We had to remind them that our advantage was inside the post. Why weren't we taking advantage of that more in the first half and making it more difficult for ourselves. We tried to get the ball into the post more and put more pressure on them in transition," Young said.

Pieper asserted herself in the post and scored off a reverse putback and hit a jumper in the paint.

"That's exactly what we needed. We needed the bigs to step up. Tonight was their night to lead us in scoring and Callie answered the call and she had a great game," Young said.

Oh drove for two and Mia Frye hit a triple to put Iolani up, 34-19 in a 9-0 run to open the second half. Pieper scored off a putback and on the right block as Iolani took control for good for a 17-point lead going into the fourth.

Maui shot 5-for-22 (22.7 percent) from the field in the first half and finished 12-for-46 (26.1 percent) overall.

Iolani shot 22-for-51 (43.1 percent) overall from the field and led by as much as 18. The Raiders out-rebounded the smaller Sabers, 38 to 27.

Iolani defeated Campbell, 49-39 in the Matsumoto Law Group McKinley Girls Basketball Black and Gold Classic on Nov. 11.

The Raiders topped the Sabers, 54-39 in last year's semifinals.

Brandon Ching | SL


Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].




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