A crowd of about 300 at McKinley's Student Council Gym watched the Red Raiders improve to 12-3 in league play. The Trojans fell to 11-4 and will face Moanalua (10-7) at about 7 p.m. Tuesday at McKinley in a game that will be televised live on OC16.

The winner will face Kahuku in Thursday's 7 p.m. final at McKinley.

The Red Raiders broke open a close game  last night by out-scoring Mililani 20-8 in the second period, and then opening the lead to 56-29 after Thompson's reverse layup with 2:34 remaining in the third. But Alex Bumgarner, Brady Spridigllozzi and Ryan Jacobs each hit a 3-pointer in the final two minutes of the quarter to close it to 60-40 entering the fourth.

Josh Lenchanko, Hassan Richardson and Bumgarner then added three more triples to spark a frantic 17-2 run that cut the lead to 62-57 on Kaimihoku Wilson's layup with five minutes left in the game.

"In the first half, we weren't playing as a team, but in the locker room we talked about taking things one possession at a time and getting stops on defense," Trojans coach Ed Gonzales said. "They found their confidence in the second half."

Thompson finally broke the spell with a layup to start a 6-0 run that pushed the lead to 68-57 on Kawehena Johnson's baseline finger roll with two minutes remaining, and Mililani could not get closer than seven the rest of the way.

"(The Trojans) got hot and started hitting 3s, but our kids knew how to finish," Kahuku coach Darren Johnson said. "I'm proud of them, they've worked hard."

Kawehena Johnson finished with 15 points, including three 3-pointers, and Galeai Malefau added 14 points. Richardson led the Trojans with 16 points, Bumgarner added 13 points and Wilson contributed 10 points.