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Kalani Takase | ScoringLiveFebruary 13, 2025, 12:16am
Wed, Feb 12, 2025 @ McKinley
KAKAAKO — Wally Marciel had a good feeling going into this one and the first three-plus minutes affirmed that premonition for the longtime Kailua boys basketball coach.
The sixth-ranked Surfriders rode an early 10-0 run, couple with a a balanced offense and a lights-out defensive effort to a 57-36 win over No. 7 Mililani in the OIA Division I championship game Wednesday night.
A crowd of about 750 fans at McKinley's Student Council Gymnasium saw the Surfriders (13-0) race past the Trojans (11-3) to their sixth league title and first since they won a D2 championship in 2013.
It is Kailua's first top-tier OIA crown since 1982.
"Every year it's a goal," said Marciel, the 13th-year coach of the Surfriders.
"We've been close to this game every single year and the kids know that the last time we won a Division I OIA championship was 42 years ago, (but) tonight we didn't talk about that in the locker room. Tonight I talked about (how) it's all about us — it's us, it's this team, it's not the team of 1982 — it's us and it showed at the beginning of the game," Marciel said.
Kailua scored on four straight possessions to seize a double-digit lead just three minutes and 24 seconds into the contest.
Nainoa Hirasuna-Kenny got things started with a 3-pointer from the left wing. Joseph Bienek went inside for a bucket on the Surfriders' next trip down the floor and went outside with a triple from the right corner on the one after that. Skyler Unseen hit a turnaround fade-away jumper from 16 feet after a couple of stops on the defensive end to force a Mililani timeout.
"We were just ready — we prepared for this since we came into high school really — so we were just ready to play," said Unten, a senior guard.
Marciel said he knew his players were locked in during their pregame preparations.
"To see our guys in the locker room before the game — and I look at eyes — and guys weren't sitting down, they were constantly moving. They were focused and I knew we were ready to play the game tonight," Marciel said.
Mililani coach Garrett Gabriel said the early deficit put his team in a bad spot — one that it ultimately could not overcome.
"They definitely wanted it, you could tell. They wanted it more than we did and it showed by their energy and coming out, hitting their first five, six shots if I'm not mistaken, so that kind of put us behind the eight-ball and we had to chase from then on, but they continued to play well, they continued to shoot it well, so that's where it was a struggle for us to catch up," Gabriel said.
Not only did the Surfriders start the game on a torrid pace, they closed out the opening stanza on a 9-2 run that culminated with buckets on consecutive possessions. Dylan Kunz stepped into a long 3-pointer on the right wing not long after he checked into the game and Tyler Parker found Sebastian Ledda open on an inbounds play to give their team a 22-6 cushion after eight minutes.
Mililani got to within 27-15 at halftime, but Kailua shot a blistering 69.2 percent (9 of 13) from the field in the third quarter to separate further. It took its largest lead with 1:56 remaining in the period after a pair of Parker free throws made it a 48-21 advantage.
"We just worked hard, that's all it is. We just worked hard. We can't be satisfied ever," said Kunz, a junior forward. "When we're up 20, it's zero-zero in our head. Gotta keep it going, gotta keep it going; foot on the gas."
Unten scored seven points in each half and finished with a team-high 14 on 6-of-13 shooting, including 2 of 3 from beyond the arc. He also dished out five assists and grabbed three rebounds.
Hirasuna-Kenny splashed three of Kailua's seven made 3-pointers and tallied 11 points, while Bienek had 10 points and five boards in the win. Parker contributed five assists, five rebounds and two points.
Leading scorer Maddox Pung, who entered the game averaging nearly 14 points per game, was held to seven points — which tied his season low — on just 3-of-9 shooting. Pung, who was coming off of a career-high 30 points in Monday night's semifinal win over Moanalua, also recorded seven rebounds.
"From the beginning of the season we knew that we had a special group and we just didn't rely on one guy to score. There was multiple guys scoring tonight and balanced scoring," Marciel said.
Marciel said a mid-season flu bug forced the Surfriders to diversify their offense beyond simply relying on Pung, a third-year starter.
"Other guys were stepping up and it showed tonight that there's (many) more weapons that we have than one or two guys," Marciel said.
Ledda and Kunz added eight points and three rebounds and five points and seven boards off the bench, respectively.
Kailua recorded 37 rebounds to Mililani's 23. It dominated in second-chance points by an 11-0 margin.
Unten praised the Surfriders' bigs for their stellar play.
"They were amazing. It's really helpful when you just get rebounds, easy layups — it just makes everything flow," Unten said.
Kailua held Mililani to a season-low scoring output.
The Trojans entered the game averaging nearly 71 points per game. Their leading scorer, senior forward Roman Gabriel, brought a scoring average of 18.8 points per game into the contest.
"The defense, that was a total focus from the beginning of the year, we worked hard on defense (on) taking away gaps and it showed tonight to hold Mililani to that margin," Marciel said.
Roman Gabriel had scored no fewer than 13 points in any regular or post-season game this year. He was limited to 1-of-9 shooting; His lone bucket came with 1:21 left in the first half off a feed from Aaron Matsuda.
"The goal tonight — and Roman is a great player, I mean, he's fantastic — the goal tonight was to hold him to one shot. He's going to miss a few, but (making) sure that he doesn't get that rebound after he shoots that shot, that was the goal tonight going into the game," Marciel said.
Mililani's second-leading scorer, Tui Tukimaka, was averaging 12.3 points per game, but was held scoreless in 26 minutes of game time.
LeCedric Brown scored 10 of his game-high 16 points after halftime and was the lone Mililani player to score in double digits. Ezekiel Virtudes and Matsuda added six points apiece in the loss.
"Roman couldn't get anything going, (Brown) struggled a little bit til late — got some easy buckets — but by that point the game was already over," Garrett Gabriel said.
The Trojans shot 30.2 percent (13 of 43) from the field.
Mililani made its fourth title game appearance in as many years, but since winning its last OIA crown in 2022, has lost the last three times it reached the final.
"(The Surfriders) probably played their best game and we played our worst game. It was just uncharacteristic of our kids to play that way, but credit to them, they hit the shots and then we started forcing and doing things that we normally don't do. We couldn't get anything going. They did a good job. They scouted us well, so we gotta bounce back," Garrett Gabriel said.
The Trojans, who were seeking their third league championship, will host Kahuku in a first-round game of the HHSAA State Championships Monday at 6:30 p.m.
Kailua will have a seeded berth and first-round bye before it faces either Kamehameha-Maui or University Lab in a quarterfinal on Wednesday, 7 p.m. at Moanalua.
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