• Photo gallery: Division II Basketball Finals

Forget the stat sheet. One glance at the starting fives said it all.

Top-seeded Farrington loomed large in capturing the Hawaiian Airlines/HHSAA Boys Basketball Division II State Championship title game for the second time in four years. The Governors used a blend of size and athleticism to defeat Pahoa 58-45 and swat away the defending-champion Daggers’ repeat bid.

Second-seeded Pahoa arrived with state tournament know-how from last season’s successful run, but all the big-game experience in the world couldn’t budge the huge Govs, who feature as many players above 6 feet as below it. The Big Island Interscholastic Federation champions spent much of their time craning their necks at their opponents from the Oahu Interscholastic Association.

Govs senior forward Lancelot Williams ruled the paint with 13 points and 15 rebounds, while junior guard J.P. Saycon, the tournament’s most outstanding player, amazed with his explosiveness and finished with 11 points and six assists.

Farrington (18-1) moved up to Division I for the two years after its last D-II title, but dropped back down to Division II for this season.

It still meant a lot to the Govs.

"I’m so happy for our (six) seniors," Farrington coach Allan Silva said. "When they came up through the program, they kept hearing about the 2008 state championship team. But now they have a piece of that."

Farrington shot 53.8 percent from the field to Pahoa’s 29.8 percent, and outrebounded the smaller Daggers 38-25. The transition game was where the Govs really shined, wowing the crowd with their passing and teamwork.

Farrington was in control the whole way, speeding to a 17-5 lead after one quarter. However, Pahoa (11-7) preyed on complacent turnovers to claw within 38-32 at the start of the fourth quarter.

The Daggers felt they could counter the Govs’ size with an effective drive-and-kick game, but the 3-point shots refused to fall most of the night (3-for-14). It eventually caught up to Pahoa, which ran out of firepower. Farrington put the game away with a 12-0 run, during which a Saycon three-point play was, for lack of a better term, the dagger with about 5 minutes left.

Criticism may persist that Farrington, one of the biggest schools in the state in enrollment, had no business contending for a title against smaller schools like Pahoa and University High.

But to the Govs, all they could do was play the schedule they were given.

"It means a lot to us," said Saycon, who scored 11 points — including a thunderous one-hand fast-break dunk in traffic in the second quarter — to go with six assists.

"We wanted to be in D-I this year, and we proved that we should be in D-I, not D-II. But this win still means a lot to us, regardless of division."