Hunter Marumoto had 13 points, Fabian Camacho hustled for 11 and Justin Yap added 10 as Maryknoll overwhelmed Leilehua 56-37 in the opening round of the Heide & Cook/HHSAA Boys Basketball State Championships.
Maryknoll will play Maui Interscholastic League champion Kamehameha-Maui, the third seed, on Wednesday at McKinley Student Council Gymnasium. Tip-off is 5:30 p.m. The Spartans routed the Warriors 62-32 at the Moanalua Invitational on Dec. 9.
“We played them in the first round last year up in Maui, and we played them at Moanalua, so they know us really well. We know each other really well,” Maryknoll coach Kelly Grant said. “They’re big and they’re heavy, so they try to pound the ball inside. We have to lift some weights tomorrow.”
They were well prepared for the speedy, explosive Mules of Leilehua on Monday.
“We talked about being unselfish with the ball. Leilehua likes to run a lot of traps, run from behind, stuff that we’ve seen in our league, so we were kind of prepared for it,” Grant said. “We had to make sure we keep our eyes up and look for diagonal passes. We knew they would be taking away our first pass on both sides.”
Maryknoll (28-7 overall) came into the game unseeded as the runner-up from the ILH but is also ranked No. 2 in the Star-Advertiser Boys Basketball Top 10. It was a tough matchup for Leilehua (17-10), ranked eighth.
“That’s been our problem all season, consistency. Up and down, up and down, but that’s what we get with an inexperienced team,” Leilehua coach Chad Townsend said. “We’ve got some veterans out here with Z and Twain, but Maryknoll played well. They shot lights out.”
Twain Wilson had 11 points and seven boards, and Zelston Militante tallied 10. Shiloh Caminos-Cooper added eight points.
When the teams met at the ‘Iolani Prep Classic on Dec. 19, Maryknoll won 54-44.
Marumoto added four assists, while 6-foot-5 sophomore Rome Lilio had six points and eight rebounds.
The Spartans got two 3-pointers from Yap to open the game with a 9-0 run. By the time Lilio scored on a layup early in the second quarter, Maryknoll was up 25-12.
The visiting Mules tried everything from a 2-3 zone to a 1-3-1 halfcourt trap to a fullcourt press, but the home team never wavered. Maryknoll got a boost off the bench from Kaniala Woo, who had seven points as the Spartans took a 32-21 lead into the locker room at halftime.
“He’s a good shooter. He’s a good passer. He understands the concepts we’re trying to teach. He’s a bigger boy, so he can put his body on their bigger kids,” Grant said.
Zion Milare, who spent plenty of energy on the defensive end covering Leilehua’s slashing point guard Militante, splashed a 3 as Maryknoll opened a 37-21 lead with 5:48 left in third quarter. Leilehua got no closer than 12 points the rest of the way.
Reserve center Blade Kaululaau’s 3-pointer with 35 seconds left provided the Spartans with their biggest margin of the game.
Maryknoll finished with just eight turnovers.
“I don’t know what our turnover margin was, but we did a pretty good job. In the state tournament, if you can keep it under double-digits, you did a good job, especially against a team running and jumping and putting a lot of pressure on you,” Grant said. “Half of our practice was designed to make sure we prepare for that.”
Moanalua 60, Mililani 56
Gavin Pommerenk scored 12 big points off the bench and Na Menehune (16-10) held off the OIA runner-up Trojans (18-5) to advance to Wednesday’s quarterfinals against No. 4 seed Kamehameha-Hawaii at Moanalua at 5 p.m.
Jerome Williams had eight points and 10 rebounds and Skyler Miyasato chipped in eight points, four assists and four rebounds before fouling out for Moanalua.
Na Menehune shot 48.9 percent (22-for-45) from the field.
J Marxen and Creighton Ofsonka led three Mililani players in double figures with 12 points.
Kahuku 52, Konawaena 35
Leonard Ah You led all scorers with 19 points and 16 rebounds and Kache Kaio added 16 points to lead the Red Raiders (19-4) over the Wildcats (12-6).
Mystique Akina-Watson added eight points and eight rebound for Kahuku, which is in the state tournament for the eighth consecutive time.
Kahuku will play No. 2 seed Campbell in the quarterfinals on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at McKinley.
Kailua 82, Lahainaluna 53
Jonathan Philbrick finished with 24 points, seven assists and five steals and the Surfriders (22-5) jumped on the Lunas (14-8) early to advance to the quarterfinals against No. 1 seed Saint Louis on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Moanalua.
Kana’au Castro had 22 points, four rebounds and four assists to lead Lahainaluna, which was outscored 19-5 in the first quarter.
