HONOLULU — Mililani in another Oahu Interscholastic Association boys basketball final? Take it all the way to the bank.
The Trojans reached their fourth straight OIA Division I championship game when Taye Marxen banked in not one, but two free throws for the go-ahead points against defending champion Leilehua with 7.9 seconds remaining.
Mililani, the third seed out of the competitive OIA West, held on for a tense stop at the other end — the game had 28 lead changes — and prevailed 61-60 in the second of two semifinals at McKinley on Monday night. It will see top OIA East seed Kailua in Wednesay’s 7:30 p.m. championship at the same site.
[Note: See below for more photos of the OIA Division I boys basketball semifinals.]
“I think the key was just finding ways to get through it,” Trojans coach Garrett Gabriel said. “This team has been very resilient. I told him to even be in OIA championships, it takes some luck, but it also takes some skill.”
Kailua defeated Moanalua 67-56 behind a career-high 30 points from guard Maddox Pung in Monday’s first semifinal.
Roman Gabriel led the Trojans (11-2) in the scoring column with 23 on 9-for-14 shooting, but it was the last of Marxen’s six points that were the most crucial.
Marxen, a role player known for his defense and rebounding, scrapped for a ball that was nearly hauled in by Leilehua’s Tyree Wilson for a Trojan turnover along the baseline. He went up strong between two defenders to earn the pivotal call.
He banked the first to tie the game and stuck out his tongue toward the bench. During a timeout before his second shot, teammates assured him that he would take them home.
He banked it in again.
Intentional? Well, maybe.
“A little bit, not really,” Marxen, a catcher on the baseball team, said of practicing the bank. “It's when I shoot a little strong that day, but it's okay, as long as it went in.”
Said Coach Gabriel, “People laugh, but he actually does that at practice too. I wasn't shocked, but, you know, it's not normal. What I told him, the bottom line is making them and he found a way to do it.”
Mililani used its fouls to whittle the clock down to 3.8 seconds for Leilehua on its last shot. Mililani took away the first option for Tyree Wilson at the top of the key. Cobe Wyatt drove into Mililani’s zone defense from the right wing and attempted a scoop shot past three defenders.
He was too strong with it but Wilson was there on the weak side for the tip attempt. It bounced on the rim but rolled off and the Trojans celebrated.
It was the latest tight battle between the Central Oahu rivals. Leilehua (11-1) won the regular-season meeting 51-50 on Dec. 23.
Mules coach Chad Townsend declined to comment on whether there should’ve been a call on the final play, saying he had to watch the film.
“It just came down to who executed better every last possession of the fourth quarter,” Townsend said. “I felt Mililani caught us sleeping on couple 3s. They executed when they had to. They hit, I believe, two big 3s in the fourth quarter, wide open, executed their play.”
Tui Tukimaka had three 3-point hits among his 15 points for Mililani and guard LeCedric Brown (13 points, five rebounds) took a huge charge under the basket in the fourth quarter while playing with four fouls. Point guard Ezekiel Virtudes had seven assists and three steals.
Wilson led the Mules with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
In the first semifinal, Kailua’s Pung, who is considered by Surfriders coach Wally Marciel to be an extension of his staff on the floor, decided the battle with Moanalua would be won from 15 feet and closer.
The 6-foot-1 guard punished smaller Moanalua defenders in the midrange repeatedly and helped turn back a Na Menehune charge from down 16 points to within six in the third quarter. Pung shot 13-for-21 for the game, including four misses from 3-point range; he was 13-for-17 from inside the arc.
“I feel like (Marciel) has had trust in me since my freshman year, when I was starting, and I thank him for that, and he's helped me go into the role that I'm in now,” said Pung, a junior. “I like to lead. It's great leading these guys, and they make it easy for me.”
His running mate in the backcourt, Skyler Unten, supplied 10 points and eight rebounds while wing Dylan Kunz supplied six points, five rebounds and three steals off the bench.
Pung’s three-point play at the end of the third pushed the lead back to 14 points heading into the final eight minutes.
Moanalua coach Brandon Dumlao could only shake his head at his bucket binge for more than a dozen points in the period.
“His ability to score is insane. I mean, our whole game plan was to lock him down,” Dumlao said. “And I think his size and his length just overwhelmed us. Our young guys gave it their best effort on him, and he's still and I don't think we really gave up a bunch of layups, you know, he got to his spots and he knocked him down. So I mean, hat’s off to him. I enjoy watching him play.”
Freshman Chazen Dabalos-Vereze led Na Menehune with 18 points.
For Kailua, an appearance in the D-I title game has been a long time coming. It is the first under Marciel, who led the Surfriders to the OIA D-II championship in 2013 soon after he took over the program.
Kailua lost in the semifinal round the last two years.
“We're in the big game. I mean, these kids deserve it,” Marciel said. “They work their tail off and they want they won that championship.”
After reviewing a six-point win at Moanalua in late December, Marciel thought his team could inflict even more damage by swarming the offensive glass.
They grabbed 16 offensive rebounds and won second-chance points 20-7.
In Mililani, Marciel sees an opponent as quick as his team.
“I think post play will be very important on both sides,” he said. “You can see that we got two pretty good post guys with JJ (Bienieck) and Sebastian (Ledda).”
Mililani is in pursuit of its third OIA title, and first since 2022. Kailua is going for its fifth, but first at the top division since 1982 under Louis Santos.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.
