No surprises in semis of MIL basketball

By Fred Guzman

There were no surprises in the MIL boy’s basketball tournament last night. The teams that were expected to win, did. That set up a pair of anticipated rematches in tonight’s championship games at the Baldwin High gym.

At 5 o’clock, regular-season champion Seabury Hall will face runnerup Molokai High for the Division-II crown.

Dylan King scored 14 of his 18 points in the first quarter as Seabury eased to a 58-27 win over Lanai.

Molokai advanced with a 46-37 victory over St. Anthony behind Kamakana Duvauchelle-Andrade’s 24 points. He missed a pair of losses last week against Seabury, which has lost star guard Phelan Pagano for the season with a knee injury.

At 7 o’clock, regular-season champ Lahainaluna will tangle with Baldwin for the D-I title.

Lahainaluna rode a 28-pound performance by guard Luke Williams to defeat Kamehameha 58-33.

Baldwin advanced with a 39-24 win against cold-shooting King Kekaulike, which made just 7 of 49 attempts from the field for a dismal 14 shooting percentage.

The Bears are assured for a berth at the state tournament but can force a playoff game for the MIL overall title by defeating the Lunas tonight.

MIL SOCCER: Logan Bantilan and Taylor DeGuerra each scored two goals for Kekaulike, which clinched a berth in the state D-I tourney with a 4-1 win over Seabury. Willy Harris accounted for the Spartans’ goal.

Kekaulike has 25 points with one match remaining.

Defending champion Baldwin is second with 21 points and one game left, which means the Bears can’t overtake Na Alii for the league title but are still alive for a post-season berth.

Lahainaluna is third with 20 points but with two matches left the Lunas are still mathematically alive for the MIL crown.

In other boy’s action, Kamehameha registered its first win of the season, defeating Maui High 1-0 on a goal by Kailoa Akoi.

In girls’ action, Kamehameha moved back into first place in D-I with a 2-0 victory over Maui High and Kekaulike blanked Seabury Hall 3-0 on goals by Kayela Santiago, Kirra Smith and Janna Duquette.

Kamehameha closed out the regular season with a 14-1-1 mark and 43 points. Defending champ Baldwin is 13-0-1 with 40 points with two matches left – both on the road against winless Molokai.