These young Saints are marching in again.
Sophomore Pupu Sepulona scored 21 points and pulled down 11 rebounds as top-seeded Saint Louis outlasted unseeded Moanalua 47-34 on Thursday night at Moanalua’s gym.
“I’m feeling sore and fatigued,” said Sepulona, who faced rugged defense by Moanalua’s bigs. “I give all my teammates the credit for this win. I love them so much. Campbell is an extraordinary team. We have to bring our ‘A’ game.”
ILH champion Saint Louis (26-7 overall) will battle OIA champion Campbell in the Division I final of the Heide &Cook/HHSAA Boys Basketball State Championships. Tip-off at SimpliFi Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center is 7 p.m.
“It’s a real testament to these guys who fight through adversity and suck it up. I mean, Jordan Nunuha got all kinds of treatment (for an ankle injury). He could barely walk last night,” Saint Louis coach Dan Hale said. “We needed everybody. You play a team like that who’s hot and they’re confident, and they’re in their own gym. Brandon (Dumlao) does a great job. That team was ready to move on. Our guys just fought through some adversity and stuck together. I’m just so proud of these guys.”
Sepulona, a 6-foot-2 sophomore, shot 7-for-10 from the field and 7-for-11 at the free-throw line. Sophomore point guard Shancin Revuelto added nine points and three of his team’s 11 steals. He also had no turnovers against tough on-ball defense by Moanalua.
“I feel amazing. It’s not finished yet. Tomorrow, we have to come out with the same intensity,” Revuelto said.
It was a typically rugged game by the Crusaders, who shot just 53 percent from the foul line (17-for-32), but they were efficient from the field at 46 percent (15-for-33). They also forced Moanalua into 20 turnovers.
Stone Kanoa, a sophomore, was the primary defender on high-scoring Moanalua playmaker Skylar Miyasato. The 6-foot senior guard finished with 12 points on 2-for-10 shooting from the field with eight turnovers as the Crusaders constantly brought help defense and closed out on his mid-range shots.
“We started Shancin (on Miyasato), and for the majority of the game we put Stone on him. Skylar’s tough. You can’t shut him down. You just want to make him work for his shots,” Hale said.
Kanoa has embraced his role as an elite stopper.
“There’s not a lot of glory, but it doesn’t matter. As long as I help my team and we win a state championship, that’s all that matters to me,” Kanoa said.
Defending champion Saint Louis held Moanalua without a field goal for 12 minutes in the second half, extending a 20-14 halftime lead to a 36-25 cushion with 3:52 left in the game.
“We’re here because of our defense, straight up,” Hale said. “Pupu’s amazing and can do all those things with the ball, but at the end of the day, it’s our defense that got us here.”
Moanalua (17-11) last reached the semifinal round in 2018. Na Menehune won state titles in 1996 and ’97 under then-coach Eddie Maruyama. They were the sixth-place team out of the OIA this season but upset Mililani and ousted BIIF champion Kamehameha-Hawaii.
