Raini Mayo had eight points and seven rebounds as Mililani stifled Roosevelt 40-17 to advance out of the play-in opening round of the Heide & Cook/HHSAA Girls Basketball Division I State Championships on Monday night at the Trojans’ gym.
Mahealani Choy Foo led Mililani (12-3 overall) with nine points.
“It was not very crisp for this time of the year, but a win is a win,” Mililani coach Michael Oyama said.
Mililani, the OIA runner-up, will play BIIF champion Konawaena in a quarterfinal on Thursday.
Freshman Akemi Kawamata provided a major boost with eight rebounds, including four on the offensive glass. She also added three steals as the Trojans’ man-to-man defense stifled the quick Rough Riders.
“I was just feeding off everyone else. I’m usually going for the fast break and layups,” Kawamata said. “But I had stomach pains.”
The game tipped off at 5:30 p.m., earlier than usual, and she ate a meal from Raising Cane’s at 3 p.m. Two hours isn’t much time to digest food, apparently — hence, the tummy ache.
The bonus energy from Kawamata helped make up for the loss of junior point guard Jovi Funakoshi, who is out for the rest of the season with a stress fracture in her foot. Oyama said she played through it in a playoff win over Kaiser, when she hit the tying basket to force overtime, and again against Campbell in the OIA championship game.
“It swelled up after that,” Oyama said.
Roosevelt shot 4-for-23 from the field in the first half and trailed 24-9 at the break. It was rough from the start as the home team raced to a 10-2 lead before the end of the first quarter and hit seven of its eight free-throw tries before halftime.
After intermission, Kaili Heen’s corner 3 brought Roosevelt within a 12-point margin, but Kassaundra Sewa-Santiago hustled for a steal and a layup. After a layup by Jenna Sagon-Galisa, Mililani’s lead was 28-12.
Roosevelt scored on a putback from Tiana Burgess, and two foul shots by Makayla Furuto brought the lead back down to 13, but the visitors were out of scoring punch after that.
Mililani closed the game with a 12-1 run.
Heen led Roosevelt with five points. Freshman Makalah Richardson, playing with her right ankle taped up, shot 1-for-11 from the field and had two points with nine rebounds.
Roosevelt completes its season 11-4 overall.
Punahou 47, Radford 35
Laynee Torres-Kahapea poured in 22 points as Punahou pulled away for a win over Radford at Hemmeter Fieldhosue.
ILH runner-up Punahou advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Heide & Cook/HHSAA Girls Basketball Division I State Championships. The Buffanblu (8-6 overall) will battle third-seeded Lahainaluna on Thursday, 7 p.m., at McKinley Student Council Gymnasium.
Angel Asaah powered Radford (13-4 overall) with 15 points and nine rebounds. Jirah Villanueva added eight points.
The Lady Rams trailed 21-15 at the half and whittled the lead to one point before Punahou pulled away.
“Laynee hit two free throws, then a runner and all of a sudden we’re up six again,” Punahou coach Gary Pacarro said. “Radford is really scrappy with Angel and we were able to keep No. 12 in check.”
That would be Mailana Mattos, who was limited to two points.
“I credit our defensive pressure. We talked about it all week, that we put pressure on them the whole time,” Pacarro said. “(Radford coach) Charles (Chong) has a good crew and they play tough.”
Kuualoha Lloyd finished with nine points on three 3-pointers, and Keilani Stewart added seven. Whether it was fullcourt pressure or tough halfcourt man-to-man defense, the Buffanblu were energized by a robust home crowd.
“We did all of the above. This is a state championship, so we did things differently than we do in the ILH. A little more ball pressure fullcourt,” Pacarro said.
“It was a great game. Both teams played very, very hard. It was nice to have the homecourt advantage. The crowd was good. We were very fortunate with a lot of supporting fans. They got the kids jacked up to play. A lot of the student-athletes stayed around after practice and supported the girls. We had the support of the Punahou ohana.”
Maui 51, Kaiser 45
The host Sabers jumped out to a 15-5 lead and then held off a Cougars rally to advance to the quarterfinals.
Kaylalani Thorton scored 15, leading a balanced attack for Maui. Alexus Ma‘ae scored 17 points and Jamie Kimura 10 for Kaiser.
Waiakea 51, Moanalua 31
Jolie Mantz scored 18 points and Avery Snyder had 10 points and 10 rebounds as the host Warriors dominated from start to finish to defeat Na Menehune.
Shailoh Liilii led Moanalua with nine points.
