Lunas, Spartans ousted from contention

By Fred Guzman

MauiNow.com

By the time the state high school basketball tournaments reached their midway marks Thursday night, all of the MIL’s three qualifiers were out of title contention.

But, to be fair, both of the MIL champions – Lahainaluna in Division-I and Seabury Hall in D-II – were competitive in suffering quarterfinal losses.

The fourth-seeded Lunas contributed mightily to their demise by committing 26 turnovers, in a 65-62 loss to Kahuku at Radford High. Sam Kiek scored 24 points and the Lunas rallied to tie the score with less than a minute left before turnovers again came back to haunt them.

Second-seeded Seabury, meantime, squandered a seven-point lead going into the fourth quarter and a 24-point outing by Michael Palmer in a 60-57 overtime loss to Academy of the Pacific at Kalani High.

That means both teams were relegated to the consolation bracket, along with Kamehameha-Maui, which bounced back from an opening 59-45 loss to Punahou on Wednesday by beating Campbell 63-54 at Radford on Thursday although Kekoa Turberville scored 23 for the Warriors.

All three MIL teams will be in action Friday. The games will be aired on Maui’s ESPN 550 and espn550.com. The schedule: Kamehameha vs. Waiakea at 11 a.m., Mililani vs. the Lunas at 1 p.m. and Seabury vs. St. Joseph at 5 o’clock.

UH ROUNDUP: Hawaii could have extended an imminently forgettable season by winning at Boise State on Thursday. Instead, the basketball Bows were soundly beaten, 82-63, suffering their eighth loss in as many road games and dropping below the Broncos into last place in the WAC.

That means UH not only has to win its regular-season finale at Idaho on Saturday, but also needs San Jose State to beat Boise State and Nevada to defeat LaTech to earn a berth in the WAC tournament in Reno.

The eighth-ranked UH men’s volleyball team opens a tough four-match road trip by challenging No. 3 Cal State Northridge tonight and Saturday followed by matches at USC on Monday and Tuesday. The Trojans finished second in last year’s NCAA tourney.

The UH baseball team opened a four-game series against The Citadel on a losing note last night, squandering leads of 6-1 and 6-4 lead to suffer a 12-8 setback on a rainy, gusty night at Les Murakami Stadium. The loss dropped Hawaii’s early-season mark to 4-5. The series continues with a double-header on Friday, starting at 3:05, and concludes on Sunday.

The Rainbow Wahine basketball team, which clinched a berth in the WAC tournament earlier in the week, close out the regular season at New Mexico State.

The UH softball team brings a 9-6 record into Friday’s opening round of the Bank of Hawaii Invitational. Also entered are Washington, East Carolina and Seattle.