Aliyah Bantolina and the Campbell basketball team aim high

There is no shortage of praise for Campbell junior guard Aliyah Bantolina.

The No. 6-ranked Lady Sabers are the defending OIA champions thanks to great defense, a fast break that doesn’t stop, and playmakers with that extra gear.

Bantolina has scored in double figures in seven games for Campbell, missing two games after suffering a broken nose during the Konawaena tournament last month. The Sabers went 3-6 in nonconference play with perhaps the toughest schedule. She scored 15 points in a loss to the nation’s No. 1 team, Incarnate Word (Mo.), 12 against Hawaii then-No. 1 ‘Iolani and 13 against No. 2 Konawaena.

“I think our main goal is to better ourselves as a team and as individuals. If we were to schedule easy games, we wouldn’t accomplish anything,” Bantolina said. “A lot of us have a lot of fight in ourselves and a lot of heart. A couple people had doubted us, not really putting us down, but doubting us. ‘You have no posts, you have no bigs.’ “

The Sabers make a way. Bantolina is the accelerator.

“Aliyah reminds me of the Molina sisters,” Leilehua coach Elroy Dumlao said, referring to Konawaena’s former All-State players Chanelle, Cherilyn and Celene Molina. “She has always been around the game from a young age, plays at a high standard and has a passion for the game.”

Maryknoll coach Chico Furtado got a glimpse when the Spartans played Campbell last month.

“What I remember is she’s very athletic, attacks the basket and finishes with both hands, and can shoot the 3,” he said. “I watched her play Konawaena and she was very impressive. She reminds me a little of Shanadee Canon, who played for me at Kalaheo.”

Even defending state champion ‘Iolani would have been quite a fit for Bantolina, who has a 3.8 grade-point average.

“Although I had heard of her, I first really saw her when we played Campbell last preseason and I immediately thought that I’d love to have her on my team,” Raiders coach Dean Young said. “She had the tenacity, vision and control that would have fit perfectly in our system. This season, I see her stepping into an even bigger role as a leader and scorer.”

Young drew an apt comparison.

“She reminds me of Tori Maeda, who was our floor general but also had the ability to score when needed,” he said.

Maeda went on to play for BYU.

“I first saw her on a TV game,” Radford coach Charles Chong said. “My friend aptly remarked that she ‘plays like a boy.’ She is the motor on that team. She runs well, but knows how to be patient and let the game come to her. That has to have a big effect on the others. She’s a great ballhandler and scorer, but the best thing is her ability to see and pass to make plays with the weapons around her. That’s what makes her dangerous.”

Moanalua might be the best team in the OIA East, which means coach Kirk Ronolo’s team may face Campbell in the playoffs.

“I first saw Aliyah play two years ago when she came to play and travel with our club team. She has the whole package: offense, defense, speed, agility, athleticism, length, attitude, effort, character and the pedigree. She is a coach’s player, easily coachable, and makes adjustments, and understands the why,” Ronolo said. “Her improvement this year comes from her ability to finish at the rim. I watched her play against No. 1-ranked Incarnate Word. Her attack angles are one thing, but her ability to get by and around defenders at the basket is out-of-this-world impressive.”

Aliyah Bantolina was around basketball since birth. Her mother, Jody Bantolina, was a junior varsity coach at Campbell when she was carrying her third child and first daughter.

As a toddler, Bantolina would spend hours outside the gym, running on the grass with other highly active keiki. Staying in the gym with mom — who later became the varsity coach — was not as appealing.

“It’s kind of trippy to me because she was coaching at Campbell and I ended up there. There are people who knew me when I was a baby. I remember this girl named Cassie was playing with my auntie Liza (Bantolina). I would see them every day and I grew really close to that team because we were constantly at the gym,” she recalled. “I’m pretty sure I was that kid that never touched a basketball and was outside running around with the other little kids. There were four of us after school at Campbell running around outside.”

By middle school, she gravitated to the sport — not indoors, but on the family’s backyard court. Older brothers Jayce and Alika spared no quarter. Mercy for their much smaller, much younger sister was almost non-existent.

“It definitely makes her tougher. She’s not afraid of contact,” Jody Bantolina said. “They would literally fly her. They played more against her after they graduated. That’s when she became interested in playing. They were 6 feet and she was 5 feet. She had to be faster than them.”

It wasn’t until seventh grade when Bantolina finally played organized basketball. She had played flag football and dabbled in soccer.

“I liked it in the first couple of weeks, but then I got tired of it,” she said of futbol. “I played flag football for a month, so that doesn’t really count.”

Though both her mother and father (Ali) coached, the timing was largely up to Aliyah.

“Sixth grade, we told her you better pick a sport or we’ll pick one for you. We wanted her to be active,” Jody Bantolina said. “We didn’t want to force her to do anything. I tried here and there, but she would rather play tag. She was running all the time. She actually wants to run track.”

Last season, as a sophomore, Aliyah Bantolina emerged as a clutch playmaker while Campbell made a run to the OIA Division I championship. This season, with returning All-State selection Julien Parado, Taysia Molina-Schulte and first-year addition Faith Mersburgh, the defending league champion Sabers have not lost a step.

After years of battling her brothers, who were football and basketball standouts at Campbell, she was more than ready for the rest of the world. Like many other athletes, Bantolina made do with the limitations of the pandemic.

“Because of that I missed two years. I never went to clinics. I was in the backyard with a makeshift, made-up 3-point line,” she said.

Since the return of organized sports, she has played for multiple clubs. She has also flourished under Campbell coach Jasmine Corpuz in a fast-breaking, pressing attack.

“Because of our (lack of) size, we have to run,” Bantolina said.

They’re fast, and their motors are unmatched by most. The Sabers could compete on the track as a relay team, no problem.

“The fastest is between me and Faith, probably Faith. She’s a lot quicker with the ball than me. Faith was on the first (club) team I played for.”

The give-and-take nature of the Lady Sabers’ culture is a place where she is comfortable.

“Coach Jaz is very supportive in each of our goals, so we talk about our goals to her. A lot of our goals are to get into the state tournament and win states, so we’re working toward that goal,” Bantolina said.

One dream destination is College Station, Texas.

“A pretty big goal for me is I would get into Texas A&M. It’s a long shot. They actually had a guard who is very similar to me. She played a couple of years ago. But some of my family is there,” said Bantolina, who plans to major in business administration. “I contacted a couple of schools off some recruiting apps this summer. I’m open to anything and seeing what happens.”

The future will come. For now, she is becoming a more vocal leader.

“This year, I’ve learned how to communicate a lot better with regular people and with my team. I’ve gotten into a habit of talking, starting conversations to be open to what people have to say. It’s something I’ve been working on since last season,” she said. “In basketball, things just flow better when people talk, so I want my team to talk, too. And carry it into regular life.”

Coach Corpuz gets to see the process.

“She has improved a lot in the aspect of trying to play disciplined basketball and being a leader,” she said “Aliyah has definitely accepted her role of communicating with her teammates and trying to keep them on the same page, as well, and push them to do better together.”

ALIYAH BANTOLINA

Campbell basketball • Junior

>> Top 3 movies/shows

1. “Little Rascals”

2. “Coach Carter”

3. “Home Alone”

>> Top 3 food/snacks/drinks

1. Hawaiian food. “My auntie makes good Hawaiian food.”

2. Chicken Alfredo. “I can make it, but it won’t be as good.”

3. Bodyarmor, blueberry flavor.

>> Top 2 homemade foods

1. My grandmother’s beef stew. “I actually haven’t had it in a while, but we used to eat it every week during COVID.”

2. My mom’s spaghetti

>> Favorite athlete: Aliyah Boston. “She plays for South Carolina. I like her mindset when she plays. Ironically, we have the same name.”

>> GPA: 3.8. “I think it would be lower if I didn’t play basketball. Sports is a motivation for me. It makes everything important.”

>> Shoutouts: “To every coach who helped me along the way. They each taught me something. And my parents and brothers. And to the man above, because I wouldn’t be where I am without him.”