Josh Ellis made two free throws with 4.2 seconds left as No. 7 Campbell stunned No. 5 Kailua 51-49 on Monday night in the OIA Division I semifinals at James Alegre Gymnasium.
Malik Jackson had 14 points on 6-for-10 shooting from the field plus five rebounds for Campbell (23-5 overall), and Mizah Carreira finished with 13 points and two steals.
Jonny Philbrick led Kailua (20-5 overall) with 14 points and six assists. Freshman Dylan Kunz added 11 points, and center Noa Donnelly had nine points and nine rebounds.
Kailua rallied from a seven-point deficit, tying the game at 49 on a straightaway, 24-foot 3-pointer by Philbrick with 12 seconds left. Campbell opted to play without calling a timeout, and the ball ended up in the hands of Ellis. He had the ball on the left wing with no room to shoot when Kailua guard Elijah Stietzel was whistled for a foul.
“I was planning to dribble it out or pass it to another person,” said Ellis, a 5-foot-10 guard.
Was Ellis planning to shoot the ball in the final seconds?
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t think I could’ve took that shot.”
Sabers coach Wyatt Tau considered calling a timeout.
“I decided to trust our guys. (Ellis) is good at controlling the ball, and after Miles (Hornage), he’s our best free-throw shooter,” Tau said. “To be honest, I don’t know if that was a foul.”
The Sabers were glad it was Ellis at the charity stripe.
“We worked hard enough for this. We knew Kailua is really good, so we went hard all week at practice,” Carreira said. “Josh is one of our best free-throw shooters.”
Jackson fouled out with 1:55 left.
“I was stressing, honestly. I wanted to be out there and keep playing for my team, but it’s OK. My team stepped up,” he said.
Campbell played without starting wing Rondell Blenman-Villareal, who suffered an ankle injury in a quarterfinal win over Moanalua on Friday. Tau said he could have played, if necessary.
“I told him, ‘Trust your teammates.’ He did a great job coaching them up on the bench,” Tau said.
Campbell will battle Mililani on Wednesday for the OIA championship. Mililani is the defending league champion.
Carreira was superb in the third quarter, sinking four key mid-range jump shots against tough defense when the Sabers offense got stagnant.
No. 2 Mililani 40, No. 8 Leilehua 37
Creighton Ofsonka scored 10 points and J Marxen added 10 as the defending OIA champions escaped with a narrow win.
“I’m happy for the boys. Any time we play Leilehua, it’s rivals,” Trojans coach Garrett Gabriel said. “They’re a darn good team. Great coaches. I also give credit to our guys. They find a way. They problem-solve and find a way to win it. That’s what good teams do.”
With Mililani (19-3 overall) leading by three points, Marxen went to the line with 10.4 seconds left but missed the front side of his 1-and-1. Leilehua rebounded and pushed up the right sideline with no timeouts. But Leilehua missed a corner 3 at the buzzer.
Zelston Militante had 12 points for Leilehua (17-8) overall. The Mules will play at Kailua on Wednesday for third place.
Mililani maintained a four- to six-point lead for most of the second half.
Marxen’s layup off an inbounds play from halfcourt opened Mililani’s lead to 40-35.
Leilehua’s Matteus Ioane went to the foul line with 31.5 seconds left and missed both attempts, but the Mules got an offensive board by Shiloh Caminos-Cooper, who fed Militante for a layup with 21 seconds left, cutting the lead to 40-37.
Militante fouled out with 12.6 seconds left.
