HONOLULU — Each double and triple team thrown at Lola Donez was a sign of respect from a dynasty-caliber state championship program.

For Donez, Lahainaluna’s college-bound senior star, Iolani’s extra attention was just one more problem to solve in a season like no other.

The crafty, talented guard from West Maui showed out in the Heide & Cook/HHSAA Division I semifinals with 24 points on 10-for-15 shooting in a 59-44 loss to the Raiders.

She sank shots from all angles and distances to help her team rally within 10 points in the fourth quarter, but ultimately the Lunas did not have enough firepower. Donez and guard Juseana Rae Delatori (20 points) scored all but four of their team’s points.

The loss still stung as the Lunas gathered for a huddle and filed off the McKinley Student Council Gym court. For a team with several players and coaches who’d lost homes and loved ones in the Maui wildfires Aug. 8, there was something bigger to play for.

“We really wanted this, wanted this for our community and for ourselves just after everything we’ve been through,” Donez told Spectrum News after the Lunas met in their locker room. “It’s an emotional game, it doesn’t always go your way and we did what we could. Hopefully we made our community proud.”

She paused, her voice catching for a moment.

“We played hard.”

The team’s mere presence at that stage of the postseason was remarkable. In the wake of the devastation that killed 100 people and damaged or destroyed thousands of structures, Lahainaluna’s campus shut down for weeks. It was not clear how Lahainaluna athletics would proceed. Its basketball teams were among many sports wondering if they would have a season at all.

Moments after Thursday’s game, Iolani Kaniho summed up the feelings for a patchwork, yet tight-knit group that took things “day by day” as it pulled in players from other sports like track and volleyball. The Lunas have starters who had not played organized basketball before the season.

“State semis. When you get here, it hurts a little more,” he said.

“We just kept building and we were able to accomplish something I thought was pretty good, beyond what we thought we were gonna get when the season started,” Kaniho said.

Lunas hoops players faced the same well-documented obstacles as their football counterparts in the weeks after the fire as many transferred to other schools or enrolled at a “school within a school” at brand-new Kulanihako‘i High in Kihei.

“We had two people, me and Juseana, just practicing with the boys, just kind of going,” Donez said. “(We) did our recruitment, got a couple people out, next thing you know we had nine, 10 players, and started practicing. Once we got back onto campus at Lahainaluna, we were outside (the gym) for a little bit because of volleyball, but (then) we got inside and started going to work.”

Donez grew up in Lahaina and moved to Upcountry Maui with her family as she was nearing the end of middle school. She remained at Lahainaluna for her freshman season, right as the COVID-19 pandemic was emerging.

She moved to Southern California to advance her game, spending two years at Oaks Christian School and with a travel ball team that helped her gain multiple Division I offers. She committed to Cal and signed with the Golden Bears in November.

With her goal of playing at the next level assured, Donez decided last May that she would return home for her final year of high school.

She arrived home about two days before the fire.

The polished product was on full display in Wednesday’s quarterfinal round as Donez dropped a HHSAA tournament-record 41 points on 16-for-22 shooting in a 69-66 win against Waiakea.

That wasn’t even her career high; she poured in 43 on senior night against King Kekaulike.

“The goal for us was to try to get the ball out of her hands, so she can’t score as much as possible. But she’s such a tremendous player,” Iolani coach Dean Young said. “She still hurt us a whole bunch, she still put up 24. We had a team goal of holding her under 20 so we didn’t accomplish it but pretty effective, I think, with our game plan of trying to wear her out and limit her.”

Lahainaluna essentially played Iolani point for point for the last three quarters in attempting to stay alive for its first state title since 2010. The problem was the first period – the Raiders won it 20-7.

“Realistially, that was pretty much what did us in,” Kaniho said. “We weren’t able to recover and cut the lead. We fought the best we could but hat’s off to Iolani. They’re not the four-time defending champs for nothing. I thought we gave them a pretty good game after the first quarter but we were never able to get it within striking distance.”

Hailey Fernandez hit four 3-pointers and scored 16 points, Mia Frye had six of her team’s 12 steals and the Raiders pressed their way past another opponent for a chance at a fifth straight championship that would be a state record.

Kamehameha won four straight in the 1990s and Konawaena four straight in the 2010s. The Raiders (9-0) face ILH rival Kamehameha (4-6), a team they have beaten six times this season, for the title at 7 p.m. at the Blaisdell Arena, while Maryknoll and Hanalani meet in another all-ILH final for the Division II title at 5 p.m.

Donez wrapped up her high school career Friday with 19 points in a 47-35 loss to Konawaena in the D-I third-place game at the Blaisdell.

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.