Trey Ambrozich poured in 28 points as unseeded University knocked out second-seeded Kailua, 51-45, Wednesday night in the quarterfinals of the HHSAA Boys Basketball State Championships at Moanalua.
University will meet rival Punahou in the semifinals at 5 p.m. Thursday at McKinley Student Council Gymnasium.
ULS (20-10 overall), the ILH’s third-place finisher, met Punahou three times in league play. ULS won the first meeting at Punahou, 49-48, on Jan. 28, but lost to Punahou, 66-63, at Hemmeter Fieldhouse four days later. They met again on Feb. 6 in a tiebreaker for second place in round one (regular season), which Punahou won at home, 53-50.
“Our who game plan tonight was to work the ball inside, pound the paint and put pressure on the side. I felt we did a pretty good job executing our game plan,” ULS coach Ryan Tong said. “When Trey gets rolling like that, he’s unguardable. We wanted him to focus on getting paint touches and going up strong. Him, (Koa) Laboy and (Alika) Ahu, too.”
Ambrozich faced a swarming Kailua man-to-man defense and was cold in the third quarter, shooting 1-for-4 from the field. The 6-foot-7 junior warmed up in the final eight minutes with 15 points on 5-for-7 field-goal shooting and 5-for-5 at the free-throw line. He finished the contest 10-for-18 from the field and 7-for-7 at the charity stripe, adding nine rebounds and three blocks.
“It all comes down to preparation at practice every day. I really want to give credit to our whole team, pushing us at practice,” Ambrozich said. “I had a bad injury last year so I’m grateful just being able to stay healthy this year. Punahou’s a really tough team. We need our crowd and all the support we can get.”
Laboy tallied six points and 13 rebounds while Ahu added 11 points on 5-for-7 shooting from the field. As a team, the Jr. ‘Bows shot 46 percent from the field and had just 10 turnovers.
A key battle within was ULS guard Todd McKinney, a 5-9 junior, who covered Kailua’s dynamic Maddox Pung for almost the entire game. The 6-3 Pung posted McKinney up just once despite being an effective playmaker on the block.
“I’m honestly not sure why they didn’t post him more. I remember when they did give the ball to Maddox on the post, Koa came on the backside to help and he immediately kicked it out,” McKinney said.
Pung, who had early foul trouble, was scoreless on 0-for-5 shooting as McKinney consistently tried to deny him the ball on the perimeter. Nainoa Hirasuna-Kenny led OIA champion Kailua (24-5) with 15 points and Skyler Unten added 10.
“They executed. They’ve played a lot of close games this year so they know how to play them,” Kailua coach Walter Marciel said. “In the fourth quarter, every possession is important. We got into foul trouble and they got some easy baskets.”
They may have to refer to McKinney as Toddzilla from this point.
“Todd did a great job. I really got to commend Todd’s effort,” Tong said. “I call him T-Mac.”
ULS, which edged Kamehameha-Maui on a last-second basket on Monday, was the crisper team in the first quarter. The Jr. ‘Bows shot 7-for-13 from the field and grabbed four offensive rebounds to open a 16-5 lead going into the second quarter. Meanwhile, Kailua was 1-for-6 from the field. Pung had just one shot attempt until heaving a halfcourt shot before the buzzer.
Down 20-7 early in the second quarter, the Surfriders went on a 9-0 run. Dylan Kunz splashed a 3, and Nainoa Hirasuna-Kenny connected on back-to-back 3-pointers from the left wing to help Kailua pull within 20-16.
University led at the half, 27-21. The Surfriders stuck to its long-range game plan, getting a corner 3 by Joseph Bienek and a straightaway 3 by Skyler Unten. An offensive rebound and elbow jumper by Unten gave Kailua the lead, 33-32, with 2:25 left in the third quarter. The lead changed hands three more times, including Laboy’s strong drive for a layup at the buzzer to give ULS a 36-35 lead.
The Jr. ‘Bows stretched the lead to 41-37 on a euro-step, and-one play by Ambrozich with 5:24 left.
ULS had a 45-39 lead when Kailua got a 25-foot bomb from Kunz to cut the lead to three points with 2:39 remaining.
Ambrozich then hustled for a putback and Bienek missed two foul shots.
The lead was 47-42 when Ambrozich made a key hustle play to block a layup attempt by Sebastian Ledda. Ambrozich was fouled and made the ensuing free throws with 43.9 seconds left.
Down 49-42, Kailua had open 3-point looks by Pung and Hirasuna-Kenny, but missed. After shooting 1-for-7 from the arc in the third quarter as a team, Kailua pulled within 49-45 on a 3 by Unten with 9 seconds left.
Ambrozich sank two free throws with 5.9 seconds left to seal the win.
Other State Division I quarterfinal games
Saint Louis 76, Leilehua 57
Shancin Revuelto and Pupu Sepulona each scored 17 points as the top-seeded and No. 1-ranked Crusaders defeated the Mules on Wednesday at the McKinley High School gym to advance to the semifinals of the HHSAA State Boys Basketball Championship.
The Crusaders play Kahuku at 7 p.m. today at McKinley.
Caelan Fernando and Keanu Meacham each added 11 for Saint Louis, with Meacham grabbing a team-leading nine rebounds.
Trystin Stevens scored 16 and Tyree Wilson 14 for the Mules, who play Baldwin at 5 p.m. at Moanalua in a fifth-place semifinal game.
Kahuku 56, No. 4 Baldwin 49
Ronin Naihe scored 16 points and Justus Daley added 15 on 5-of-6 shooting from 3-point range as the Red Raiders beat the fourth-seeded Bears at McKinley.
Mystique Akina-Watson added 12 points for Kahuku, which advanced by upsetting Mililani on Monday.
Casey Talana finished with 18 points and Dylan Kuia added 15 for Baldwin.
