HONOLULU — The hardwood Brotherhood is back on top at last.
Saint Louis reached the pinnacle of Hawaii boys basketball for the first time in a generation as Aiva Arquette and the Crusaders overpowered trailblazing Mililani, 57-34, on Saturday night at the Blaisdell Arena.
High school hoops was back in a big way after a year lost to the pandemic; a turnstile tally of 3,187 was registered for the HHSAA Division I championship and the preceding matchup between Kaimuki and newcomer Maui Prep, won handily by the latter, 65-35 for Na Pueo’s first team sports championship.
Arquette, a 6-foot-4 baseball standout, brought the heat with his hoops abilities in being named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. He dominated up front, pouring in 25 points on 10-for-19 shooting and grabbing 12 rebounds.
“That was the game plan the whole year, since we have two 6-4 people on our team,” Arquette said of himself and frontcourt mate AJ Bianco. “That’s our game, the inside. We achieved it. That’s awesome.”
His dunk in traffic off of two feet, over two defenders late in the first half called to mind an adult playing in a youth league.
“I’ll give him a 10 for that,” Bianco said. “No step, two hands, that was on two people. His best one yet.”
Point guard Hayden Bayudan, who tallied nine points, four assists and two steals, and forward Cole Schmidt, who was perfect from the floor (4-for-4) and free-throw line (3-for-3) for 11 points, were the Crusaders’ other entries on the all-tournament team.
Saint Louis’ last HHSAA crown came 36 years ago, in 1986. With the annual, daunting task of making it out of the hyper-competitive Interscholastic League of Honolulu, the Crusaders hadn’t even played in the state title game since 2003, or qualified for states since 2007.
Enter veteran coach Dan Hale, who won a state title with Punahou in 2008. He turned loose an attacking, pressing defense that reaped turnovers all year for the ILH champs. Mililani committed 15 to Saint Louis’ 11.
“This is the culmination of a lot of hard work,” Hale said. “These guys made it through COVID, they did all the things that you need to do. They just came together and that was a tremendous team that we played tonight. We just were ready for it. I was so proud of them.”
Saint Louis won the first ever HHSAA state tournament in 1957, and tallied three straight in the mid-1960s. This was its seventh title overall.
“When I came here and met with some of the alumni from back in the ‘60s, when they were a powerhouse, and even before that, I told them that my goal was to try to bring this thing back and make Saint Louis relevant in basketball again,” said Hale, who thanked his assistants, staff and administration.
“That’s the beauty of coaching for so long, is you can connect generations. These young men … are now connected to a group that played a long time ago.”
A rowdy, flag-waving contingent of the Brotherhood made itself heard all game and Crusaders players frequently pointed their way after big moments.
Meanwhile, Mililani made its first appearance in a state title game ever to cap a season of firsts; it won the OIA for the first time ever in the sport. The Trojans had won 15 straight since falling to Saint Louis by two in a preseason game Dec. 23. The impressive run for coach Garrett Gabriel’s group included wins over ILH powerhouses Maryknoll and Iolani over the previous two days.
But the first-time jitters showed at the outset Saturday as the Trojans went 0-for-11 from the field in the first quarter and 4-for-19 in the half.
Their struggles included the free-throw line; one player got fouled on a 3-point attempt and missed all three foul shots.
It was a tough hole to dig out of against an equally tough opponent.
“We didn’t have an answer for (Arquette), and we couldn’t hit shots. Whether that’s three nights (in a row), that’s the gauntlet we had to get through, and came up short,” Gabriel said. “Still proud of the boys, because they fought. Saint Louis is just damn good.”
Mililani sharpshooter Trey Lieb was assessed his third foul with 0.6 seconds left in the first half when he dribbled into a defender near midcourt, exacerbating a 22-11 deficit at intermission.
The Trojans clawed within six points in the third quarter on consecutive pull-up jumpers in the paint by Lieb. But he’d already picked up his fourth foul and was lifted by Gabriel. Lieb and Jayden Kipapa led the Trojans with seven points apiece.
The Crusaders closed the period on a 9-1 run, capped with point guard Bayudan’s swish of a 15-foot baseline jumper at the period buzzer. Saint Louis then ended the drama by scoring the first seven points of the fourth quarter.
“We had to save (Lieb) for the fourth quarter. It’s one of those ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ (situations),” Gabriel said. “I know it’s the last game, but shots just weren’t going for us that normally goes down. I told them, you win with class, you lose with class. We lost to the better team tonight.”
In the Division II championship, Maui Prep, the Maui Interscholastic League champion and fifth seed, was clearly the best team in the eight-team field. It blew out its third straight opponent en route to the title for the Kapalua-based academy.
Na Pueo was unstoppable as a cohesive unit. It shot 51.1% from the field, drained eight 3-pointers, and assisted on 21 of its 23 made field goals. Maui Prep even sank all 11 of its free-throw attempts.
Point guard Drew Triplett came close to achieving a triple-double with a HHSAA tournament record 16 assists to go with 10 points and eight rebounds. Earlier in the MIL season, Triplett had shown the ability to score at will but made a shift for the betterment of the team.
“The coaches always tell me to score, but they also tell me to make the right play,” said Triplett, a 6-foot-1 senior who played last season at his former high school, Camas, outside Portland, Ore., during Hawaii’s lost COVID year. “The only way we were going to win the state championship was if everybody worked together, everybody got involved, everybody was able to score, and that’s what we were able to accomplish.”
Among Maui Prep’s dominant starting five, the ball movement was impeccable as a Maui team won the first boys hoops state title in 40 years; Lahainaluna was the last to do it at the “Division A” classification back in 1982.
“Amazing. Amazing. I’m kind of speechless,” Maui Prep co-coach Cheyne De La Garza said of his school’s first team title in any sport. “It’s huge for the boys, it’s huge for the island of Maui as well.”
Brothers Jimmy and Dylan Falk combined for 29 points and Levi Basurto added 12 points.
Kaimuki, the OIA champion, sought its first state title since winning at the Division I level in 2007. It actually won the first quarter, 15-14. But the second quarter signaled the runaway outcome as Na Pueo settled down defensively and went on a 17-4 run.
“Hats off to them, man. They made some deep, deep shots,” Kaimuki coach Greydon Espinda said. “No matter what we tried, they always found a way to break it. That’s a really good team.”
The Bulldogs will move up to Division I next season.
“These kids are tough kids. I know they’re going to be all right,” Espinda said. “We’ll be prepared.”
Rashawn Fritz-Betiru, a 6-foot-2 senior, led the Bulldogs with 15 points on 7-for-14 shooting.