Mizah Carreira scored 21 points as No. 7 Campbell upset No. 2 Mililani, 50-45, to capture its first OIA boys basketball championship.
Miles Hornage added 10 points for Campbell (24-5 overall).
It was a long road to gold, with tough, close losses in nonconference play across Oahu. The run-and-gun Sabers learned to thrive in close games at a slower tempo.
“It built up a lot of fire in us. We let all that fire out, finally,” Carreira said. “We work way hard enough for this. All of my boys, they love what we do. It was nerve-wracking, but we kept our mindset on, just get this ‘W.’ Our coaches just told us, have short-term memories.”
The last time the teams met, Mililani won 58-52 as Jayden Kipapa scored 28 points. Campbell limited him to 12 points this time.
A first OIA crown is a legacy moment for the Sabers.
“That means a lot to us. I’m just happy for my coach because he focuses a lot on us, and he cares about us,” Carreira said. “And he puts us to work every day.”
Wyatt Tau, their head coach, was hired to take over the program in 2009.
“There’s so much people who had hands in this, helping them through the offseason, the summer. The credit goes to so much people, not just us, who helped us with school and homework, parents bringing them to all of our morning workouts,” Tau said. “I’ll be honest. These guys deserve it.”
Hornage’s floater in the paint gave Campbell a 44-42 lead in OT. After a Mililani miss, Mason Muaau fed Carreira for a fast break bucket and it was a 46-42 Sabers lead with 1:35 to go.
J Marxen’s 3 from the right wing brought the Trojans within 46-45 with 1:05 left.
A wild exchange followed as Rondell Blenman-Villareal lost the ball, but came up with a big block on the other end. Josh Ellis went to the foul line with 26.9 seconds to go and sank both ends of a one-and-one for a 48-45 lead.
Jayden Kipapa and Roman Gabriel missed open corner 3-point attempts, and Hornage sank two foul shots with 2.3 seconds left to ice the win
Creighton Ofsonka scored 15 points to lead Mililani (19-4 overall), which lost in OIA competition for the first time this season. The Trojans came into the final as defending league champion.
“Campbell made plays when they had to. We didn’t, but we played hard. We didn’t quit,” Mililani coach Garrett Gabriel said. “Credit to them. They deserve the title.”
Mililani trailed 9-6 after one quarter, then surged ahead for a 21-13 lead as Ofsonka splashed two corner 3s and then hit a layup in transition. Before Ofsonka went down with a leg injury, he scored 10 points all during the second quarter. The Trojans led 26-20 by intermission and continued to lock down defensively in the second half.
After Timothy Dorn splashed a 3, the Trojans had their biggest lead, 35-25. When the Sabers cut the margin to six, Dorn, a 6-foot-6 freshman, stopped a 2-on-1 break by Campbell with a block, and then forced a bad shot on the follow try.
After Carreira exploded into the lane for a tough three-point play, Campbell was within 35-32 going into the fourth quarter.
After several lead changes, Malik Jackson’s putback with 3:22 left opened Campbell’s lead to 42-39. After Rylan Sotelo poked the ball away from Marxen and off his arm, the Sabers had the ball and control with 3 minutes remaining. However, LeCedric Brown came up with a steal to give Mililani possession.
Dorn then clutched up for a 22-foot trey from the top, tying the game at 42 with 2:06 remaining.
Campbell worked the clock down and Carreira missed a 10-foot runner in the lane. Mililani rebounded and called time out with 5 seconds left in regulation.
Blenman-Villareal stole the inbounds pass and missed a tough runner near the baseline. Muaau rebounded, but his putback try was capped by Dorn at the buzzer, sending the game into OT.
