The scoring machine transformed into the ultimate playmaker, and Maui Prep is now the first team in Maui Interscholastic League history to win a boys basketball state championship in the classification era.
Drew Triplett, a 6-foot-1 senior, had 10 points, eight rebounds and 16 assists as MPA completed its dominant run with a 65-35 win over OIA champion Kaimuki at the Heide & Cook/HHSAA Boys Basketball Division II State Championships at Blaisdell Center.
“We’ve been in the gym every day since last year,” Triplett said. “We had something every day — whether it was practice or not, all the boys asked the coaches if we could get in the gym. All the boys, before practice, after practice, before school, we would get in there. Our coaches always tell me to score, but also to make the right play. As the season progressed, I knew the only way we were going to win a state championship is if we all worked together.”
It showed in the state tourney. Na Pueo shot 51 percent from the field (23-for-45) against a normally tough Kaimuki defense. They also shot 11-for-11 at the free-throw line and outrebounded the smaller Bulldogs 30-20. That helped to negate 13 turnovers.
Triplett was 3-for-6 from the field and hit his only 3-point attempt, but his ability to surgically pick apart Kaimuki’s defense was unlike any other.
Kaimuki came into the state final with an eight-game win streak, averaging 73 points per game in the big dance.
Instead, Jimmy Falk scored 17 points, connecting on three of four from the arc, while Dylan Falk added 12 points (two treys) and post Levi Basurto tallied 12 points, five boards and two steals. Emerson Flores provided two steals and tight defense for Na Pueo, who finished the season a perfect 17-0.
“As a coach, I demand that they play the right way, that they share the ball,” MPA coach Zach Bailey said. “You see a lot of teams out here, they want to put the ball on the ground first, dribble, dribble, dribble. It’s tough on our guys, but it’s come to fruition.”
MPA shot 8-for-18 from the 3-point line, a testament to all the hours spent working out through the restrictions of the pandemic.
Kaimuki’s season remains sterling despite the loss. The Bulldogs trailed Kalani in the OIA East D-II standings for most of the season, but played their best basketball in the final weeks of the regular season and postseason. They simply ran into a steamroller in MPA.
“Oh my gosh, when they make all those 3s, what can you do? We tried to trap, make the game faster, but congratulations to them,” Kaimuki coach Greydon Espinda said. “They made some deep shots. Triplett was part of all of that, how unselfish he is.”
Maui Prep began its boys basketball program in 2019. MPA built a gym in 2021. Bailey is a physical education and health teacher at the school, a Lahainaluna graduate who played back in 2002.
The MIL had reached the state finals in its current configuration three times: 1984 and ’90 (Maui), and ’16 (Seabury Hall, D-II).
Lahainaluna won the 1982 “Division A” state title under Robert Mack. St. Anthony won the Division A state crown in 1977 under Paul Pladera.
Triplett had been the superstar of MPA basketball, scoring 51 points in a nonconference game against Saint Louis I-AA, and 31 against D-I Kaiser. He averaged more than 32 points per game in Na Pueo’s first seven games, but has not reached the 30-point threshold since. Instead, Triplett’s skill at attacking the rim and distributing the ball transformed him into, essentially, a point guard.
He made his teammates better, and the results were proof positive as MPA won the MIL D-II title. Bailey welcomed the possibility of playing D-I powerhouses in exhibition games, but none were able or willing for various reasons.
Kaimuki used its fullcourt pressure and quick transition game to open an 11-4 lead. Daysen Lupica’s 3 and KC Renton’s reverse layup sparked the run, but MPA responded with a long-range 3 and a traditional three-point play in the paint by Triplett to turn the tide.
Kaimuki took a 15-14 lead into the second quarter after Rashawn Fritz-Betiru hit a 10-foot bank shot.
MPA then went on a resounding 17-5 run in the second quarter as Jimmy Falk rained in a pair of 3s. Kaimuki shot 2-for-8 from the field as MPA got two wing 3s from Jimmy Falk and another from Dylan Falk. After Basurto took a steal fullcourt and hit two free throws with less than a second left in the first half, Na Pueo took a 31-19 lead into the locker room.
Tough man-to-man defense limited the Bulldogs to 2-for-11 field-goal shooting in the third quarter. MPA opened the lead to 46-24 with textbook backdoor cuts and Triplett’s array of bounce passes and left-handed skip passes to open teammates on the arc.
Fritz-Betiru led Kaimuki (13-5) with 15 points, scoring 11 in the final quarter. Jeremiah White tallied seven points. Malu Cleveland, who had been dominant during the tournament and OIA playoffs, finished with two points and four assists, taking two shots.
“I want our guys to remember everything from practices to conditioning to getting through adversity,” Espinda said. “They’ll be all right. We’ll prepare for Division I. We have the personnel coming back.”
