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Shilee Scanlan had 13 points and 13 rebounds to power Pearl City past Castle, 39-32, for the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II girls basketball championship on Wednesday night at Moanalua gym.
Scanlan hit two crucial 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to help offset Castle’s rally. The Knights trailed 29-12 early in the third quarter and got within 37-32 in the final 1:30.
“Shilee is one of our captains and she’s really come out of her shell. That mental toughness, she showed it through all of the games,” Pearl City coach Kyle Martin said of the junior. “When things haven’t gone so well, she rallies the troops. She’ll play through anything.”
Scanlan played all 32 minutes, as did teammates Aiesha DeWeever and Kendal Addaro. DeWeever, a freshman guard, finished with nine points, six boards, seven assists and five steals as one of the spark plugs in the Chargers’ tight man-to-man defense.
The crown is Pearl City’s second in girls basketball. In 2012, the Chargers won the D-II title under then-coach Mike Morton, who happened to be one of the officials for Wednesday’s battle.
“This group, this is our first year, brand-new staff, brand-new system, and this group has been amazing,” Martin said. “They bought into everything. They trust us, they trust each other. It’s made the process so much easier. They just wanted it. They’re hungry.”
Freshman Malia Tini led Castle (5-8) with 12 points and 16 rebounds. Fourteen of her boards were on the offensive glass, but she struggled to finish, shooting 6-for-20. A big reason was Scanlan, who is smaller, but refused to give Tini any ground.
“We worked hard to get here to the championship game. My mentality the whole time is they may be big, but I think I’m stronger,” Scanlan said. “I felt nervous, but my team is happy. They worked for this.”
Kaila Chun-Carvalho added eight points, seven caroms and five steals.
Castle coach Wendell Domingo couldn’t help but smile after the battle.
“I’m proud of these girls. They had a long way to journey from the beginning of the season. We just came up short tonight,” Domingo said. “Pearl City is pretty tough. They have some nice shooters.”
Castle finished with 32 turnovers. Pearl City had 30, including eight in the final quarter.
Pearl City (11-7 overall) built a 17-point lead early in the third quarter, but Castle refused to yield. Tehani Maxwell connected on a 3 and Tini hustled for a putback to bring the Knights within 37-30 with 3:10 to go.
They had a chance to get much closer, but Chun-Carvalho and Tini combined to miss four free throws in a row.
Tini scored on another putback to bring Castle within 37-32 with 1:30 to go. Chun-Carvalho then missed two more foul shots and fouled out with 42.6 seconds remaining.
DeWeever, who was fouled by Chun-Carvalho, hit one of her two foul shots to stretch Pearl City’s lead to 38-32. She missed the front side of a one-and-one with 34.5 seconds left, but Castle’s Kristiana Dutro missed two charity shots with 26.4 seconds to go.
Alexandra Dobson connected on a free throw with 6.7 seconds left to close out the scoring.
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