Lady Lunas romp to MIL hoops title

By Fred Guzman

MauiNow.com

Lahainaluna continued its dominance in MIL basketball over the weekend as the second-ranked Lady Lunas stormed to the league tournament title while the boys beat Baldwin for the third time to clinch the regular-season title.

The Lunas girls were simply spectacular in their 72-28 rout of Maui High in the final of the Division-I tournament, jumping out to a 61-22 lead at intermission and improving to 24-2 overall to capture their sixth straight MIL overall title.

Next for Lahainalua, whose only two losses have come against top-ranked Konawaena, is the state tournament to be held Feb. 16-19 on Oahu. Maui High will tangle with Baldwin in a 7 p.m. game on Thursday to determine the MIL’s second berth at states.

In boy’s basketball, senior forward Sam Kiek took over the game down the stretch, scoring 11 of his game-high 27 points in the fourth quarter, as the Lunas rallied to a 50-43 road win over Baldwin.

The win improved Lahainaluna’s MIL record to 9-1, while assuring the Lunas of a berth at states and the top seed in the upcoming D-I league tournament. Baldwin dropped to 6-4 and tied for second place with Kamehameha with two games left on the regular-season schedule.

In Division-II, the Seabury Hall boys and Molokai girls have secured tickets to states with regular-season titles and are the top seeds in their respective league tournaments.

The girls’ D-I and D-II basketball tournaments are set for Feb. 16-19 on Oahu, the wrestling championships Feb. 26-27 at the Blaisdell Arena, followed by the boy’s D-I and D-II hoops tourneys March 3-6 on Oahu.

BOYS SOCCER: After surviving a tightly contested boy’s soccer race, MIL overall champ Baldwin was seeded third in the state Division-I tournament that kicks off Wednesday on Oahu.

The MIL’s two other representatives will begin their bids on the opening day of the event at the Waipio Soccer Complex.

Division-I runnerup King Kekaulike will face Kapolei while MIL D-II champ Seabury Hall will meet fourth-seeded Kailua. Both games are scheduled for 3 p.m. starts.

Baldwin will draw an opening-day bye before facing the winner of Aiea versus Iolani in Thursday’s 1 p.m. quarterfinal match.

Punahou and Pac-Five repeated as state girls’ soccer champs by winning their respective divisions on penalty kicks.

GIRLS SOCCER:  Punahou out-scored Mililani 4-3 in the shootout for a 2-1 win in the D-I final, while Pac-Five outscored Kailua 3-1 in the shootout for a 1-0 victory to take the D-II crown.

Baldwin fininshed fourth in D-I. The third-seeded Bears opened the with a 1-0 win over Kapolei, but lost 3-0 to Mililani in the semis and 2-1 to Kalani in the third-place match. Sophomore midfielder Amber-Lei Madriaga accounted for both of Baldwin’s goals in the tourney.

Kekaulike was blanked 3-0 by Iolani in the consolation final. Seabury played to goalless deadlock with Nanakuli in the D-II consolation final.

MORE MIL:  The state canoe paddling regatta was held Friday at the Keehi Lagoon on Oahu, with the Seabury boys and the Baldwin girls finishing third. .. The state swimming and diving championships to be held Friday and Saturday on Kamehameha’s Big Island campus.

NA KOA: Maui’s new entry in the independent Golden Baseball League made a couple of key front-office hires. Scott Murray was named GM and local boy Barry Takahashi was named AGM. Murray formerly played in the SFG organization, was an assistant coach at Cal and served as a scout for big league teams. He currently resides on Oahu. Takahashi was a standout player at Baldwin High and played collegiately, most notably at TCU. He formerly coached at Kamehameha-Maui and is currently involved with several youth-oriented development programs.