HONOLULU — In a matter of months, Campbell High School completed its transition from Oahu Interscholastic Association girls basketball bystander to bully.
The Sabers' relentless pressure put the clamps on host Moanalua, 28-22, on Wednesday night to complete an unbeaten run through the OIA and make it back-to-back league titles coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic after never having won a title in the sport prior to 2022.
“I cannot preach enough about our defense. I get on these girls every day about defense,” Campbell coach Jazmine Corpuz said. “Defense is our bread and butter; we have the personnel to do it. We kind of have to do it on that strength.”
Earlier, Pearl City defeated Castle for the OIA Division II championship, the Chargers’ second all-time spanning classifications and first since 2012.
In the nightcap matchup of the top seeds in the OIA West and East, Campbell managed to score just two points in the fourth quarter but was never really threatened in the period thanks to its ability to cause havoc in the open court.
Moanalua trimmed a 14-point third-quarter deficit to six with 3:12 left in the game but was not able to get off a shot attempt from that point, a critical shortcoming as Campbell was unable to capitalize on any of its free-throw attempts down the stretch.
Na Menehune struggled to advance the ball upcourt as the Sabers snuffed out passing lanes, resulting in three turnovers during crunch time.
“That’s something we work a lot on,” guard Julien Parado said. “We feed off of energy, so even after each steal, it just brought our energy more up to finish the game strong. Even though it was close as it was, Moanalua did give us a hard time, we were able to hold them off.”
Parado had eight points and 11 rebounds to lead the Sabers. Aliyah Bantolina added six points, including all four of her team’s made free throws.
Campbell, which lost only a couple of players from its 2022 title team, had nine steals and forced 18 turnovers on Moanalua while limiting itself to 10 giveaways, which was enough to negate Na Menehune’s size advantage.
During its unbeaten run through the OIA season, Campbell (13-0) held opponents to single-digit scoring three times.
“Not too many people like to play pressing (defense) the whole game and it just created a lot of turnovers for us, which got our points,” said guard Faith Mersburgh, who transferred to Campbell from Hanalani for her senior season and had two steals Wednesday.
Moanalua (13-1), which had its way with the OIA East, found the going much tougher against the best of the West. It captured its only lead at 7-6. Campbell closed the first half on a 9-0 run to lead 15-7 at the break.
It was 26-16 going into the fourth.
Campbell beat Moanalua by 41 in a preseason game at the Iolani Classic, but Na Menehune held out several key players for that one.
“They’re scrappy, they play tough defense,” Moanalua coach Kirk Ronolo said. “My game plan was to slow it down and get it to our (post, Shailoh Li’ili’i), but the pressure on our guards was too much to get it in there. Tried running multiple sets and their stifling defense on our guards just put us in a bind.”
It didn’t help Moanalua’s cause that point guard Braylee Riturban was recovering from an illness, he said; Ronolo was proud his group came within six points.
Moanalua was led by Akaecia Mateo with 10 points and nine rebounds. Na Menehune were denied their fifth OIA title, having last won it in 2003.
Pearl City wins with 1st-year coach
The Pearl City Chargers came together quickly under first-year coach Kyle Martin to attain their first OIA Division II title and second overall with a 39-32 win over Castle at Moanalua.
“It’s been unbelievable. The buy-in, the teamwork, the chemistry, these girls love each other,” said Martin, formerly the Pearl City boys junior varsity coach. “It’s made everything so much easier.”
After losing six straight against a mixture of OIA D-I and D-II teams over the middle of the league schedule, the Chargers (6-6) recovered to win their next five.
Shilee Scanlan had 13 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Chargers, who faced a size disadvantage. Aiesha DeWeever added nine points, seven assists and five steals.
The Knights trimmed a 17-point deficit to five with 1:41 left but could not capitalize on chances to get it closer.
Castle (5-8) was going for its second OIA title and first since 2019.
Malia Tini led the Knights with 12 points and 16 rebounds. Castle was hamstrung by a 1-for-21 shooting performance from the free-throw line.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.