KAILUA, Hawaii — The OIA boys basketball banner hanging in the rafters of Kailua High School’s gym hasn’t been updated in some time.
“We look at it every year, man,” said Surfriders coach Wally Marciel, noting the last time, 1982, that the school won a Division I league championship. “So, we want that. Every player that’s come always looks at that and goes ‘coach, we want to get one.’ That’s our goal from the beginning of the year, every year.”
Kailua, the top seed out of the OIA East for the second straight season, needs two more wins to attain it. The Surfriders topped Windward Oahu rival Kalaheo, 64-52, at home on Friday night to reach Monday’s semifinals and clinch a state berth. Senior guard Jonny Philbrick led the way as he has all season with 24 points.
The Surfriders (11-0) will face the West’s second seed, Campbell (10-1), at 5:30 p.m.
Kailua is the only team remaining from the East. On the other side of the bracket, Leilehua topped the East’s No. 2 team, Kahuku, 53-49, and West top seed Mililani bested Roosevelt 55-46 on Friday. The Trojans and Mules play in the semifinal following the Kailua-Campbell game.
“I feel this team is well equipped to do that,” Philbrick said of a title run. “Last year, we lost in the OIA championship (43-26 to Mililani), so that one kind of stung. We still remember that so we want to get this one for last year’s team.”
While Kailua was far from sharp – it missed nine of 13 free throws in the fourth quarter with a chance to put the game away early – the team’s potential was on display, too, as the floor general Philbrick usually found the right balance between pulling up for a jump shot and finding an open teammate.
Kailua got 11 points from Maddox Pung, 10 from Nai Iwaki and eight from Noa Donnelly.
“We were able to miss those free throws, but if we played tougher teams in a tougher game, we cannot have that,” Philbrick said. Probably next practice we’re going to be shooting choke free throws.”
Kailua led 33-24 at halftime. Philbrick scored 10 of his team’s 19 points to the third for a 14-point advantage heading to the fourth.
Kalaheo (7-5), the fifth seed in the East, got to the rim repeatedly with its potent guard tandem of Jaron Gilmore and CJ Bostic, but was otherwise light on options. Gilmore put in 20 points and Bostic 17.
“Those guys can play,” Marciel said. “They know what to do, how to shoot it, they know how to attack the bucket. And it was good for us to play that kind of caliber of guys going into the next game.”
Marciel has been on both sides of Kailua-Kalaheo battles. He was with Kalaheo from the mid-1980s in various capacities for 20-plus years under the legendary Pete Smith.
He found success soon after taking the reins at Kailua with an OIA title in 2013 – but in Division II.
“It’s always tough to go play the school that I coached at for so many years,” Marciel said. “But I’m here at Kailua, I’m on my 10th season, I love it here and hopefully we can establish a tradition like how Kalaheo has a basketball tradition.”
Kalaheo faces Moanalua at Na Menehune’s gym at 7:30 p.m. Monday for one of the OIA’s last two state berths.
Rob Pardini, who coached the Mustangs to OIA titles in 2016 and 2018, is trying to cultivate a more balanced attack with a young team. According to ScoringLive, Bostic had a rare "5x5" game in the box score Friday with five or more points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks in a game.
“We have two very good scorers, two young guys who can really score,” Pardini said. “And the rest of the group needs to step up. That’s where we’re at. We’re young and going through these growing pains. But hats off to them. They’re a good team, Jonny’s a good leader and they got us tonight.”
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.