Backcourt tandem lifts Lunas over Baldwin

By Fred Guzman

Luke Williams led the way early. His backcourt mate, fellow senior TJ Rickard, took care of business late.

As a result, Lahainaluna rebounded from a gut-wrenching overtime loss at Baldwin on Friday to beat the Bears 50-40 on Saturday, giving the Lunas their second straight MIL boy’s Division-I overall title and the league’s top seed in the upcoming state basketball tournament.

Williams scored eight of his 13 in the opening period as the Lunas jumped out to a 16-10 lead that they extended to 30-16 at intermission.

Rickard accounted for the bulk of Lahainaluna’s scoring in the fourth period, mostly on clutch free throws. He finished with 20 points, making 13 of 14 from the stripe, as the Lunas pulled away after Baldwin closed to within five points.

On Friday, it was the Lunas who started slowly and then were held off by the Bears after forcing the game into overtime. Kelii Pacheco’s only basket of the game, a 17-foot jumper from the right side with three seconds left, lifting the Bears to a 37-35 victory in the title game of the MIL tourney to force a playoff for the overall title the following evening at the neutral Maui High gym.

Dylan King scored 26 as Seabury clinched the D-II overall crown with a 65-51 win over Molokai on Friday.

In the girls’ D-I state tourney,, second-seeded and defending champion Lunas closed with back-to-back losses, falling 54-49 to Iolani in Friday’s third-place game. MIL teams went 1-6 overall as both D-I Kekaulike and D-II Molokai went two-and-out.

Misilosa U’ulopa scored the go-ahead basket with two minutes left and Konawaena used a 6-0 run to break a tie and edge Punahou 49-45 in the D-I final. The Wildcats finished the season with a 32-1 record.

Radford won the D-II crown, defeating Kamehameha-Hawaii 43-40.