Keven Amaral scored a game-high 16 points, including 10 in the first period, and Dexter Williams added 11 points last night as visiting Moanalua held off Kalani, 54-47, in O'ahu Interscholastic Association boys basketball action.

The defending league champion Na Menehune finished 6-6 and in fourth place in the OIA Red Conference Eastern Division; they will host West No. 5 seed Pearl City (3-9) in Tuesday's first-round playoff game.

Kalani (4-8) finished sixth in the East and will travel to West No. 3 seed Leilehua (9-3) for its first-round playoff game, also on Tuesday.

Five of Moanalua's six losses have come by four points or less, including three in overtime. But last night, Na Menehune started and finished strong, though there some tight moments in between.

"We're still finding out who we are, but I think we're OK," Moanalua coach Greg Tacon said. "We've got one more home game, so that's a positive."

Na Menehune jumped out to a 9-3 lead midway through the first period after a 3-pointer by Amaral, then stretched it to 20-11 on Aaron Davis' 3-pointer to open the second quarter before finishing the first half with an 11-2 run to go up, 33-19, at the break.

"We're supposed to play better at home, but maybe it was 'Senior Night' jitters," Falcons coach Nathan Davis said.

Junior guard Tatsuya Ono, who entered last night as the OIA's second-leading scorer at 17.3 points per game, was held to one field goal and four points through the first three periods as Moanalua took a 46-34 lead into the fourth.

But that's when Ono finally got untracked, scoring nine straight points to cut it to 49-43 after a 3-pointer with 3:23 remaining. Kalani then closed to 49-45 on Nick Huth's layup 20 seconds later, but lost Ono for the game when he took a hard fall and injured his back with 2:26 left.

"Tats is a closer for us, so losing him was big," Davis said.

Na Menehune went up, 51-45, on Wesley Armbrust's layup with 2:11 remaining but the Falcons answered with a layup by Takezo Iguchi 24 seconds later. They could not close the gap, however, and Rich Villasenor's two free throws pushed the lead to 53-47 with 18.5 ticks left and Amaral made one of two free throws to seal the victory 14 seconds later.

Ono finished with 13 points to lead Kalani, which also received 11 points from Imani Washington and 10 points from Huth.

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