KAHULUI — These two teams know they will meet each other again in a crucial game on Monday, but the Lahainaluna High School boys basketball team owned Tuesday night.

The Lunas beat Maui High 64-54 to nail down the second seed in the Maui Interscholastic League Division I tournament. The Lunas (8-3) will meet the third-seeded Sabers (6-5) in the semifinals on Monday.

The Shine Matsui Athletic Center was packed for Maui High senior night on Tuesday.

“Playing over here, the environment is amazing,” Lahainaluna coach Nick Webb said. “It’s a loud court, it’s tough to play in. We just told the boys to keep their poise and if we keep playing our game we’ll get it back under control.”

Webb knew that nailing down the second seed was huge. If top-seeded Baldwin wins its semifinal Monday, the Lunas can clinch a state berth with a win versus the Sabers.

“This is really important for the tournament,” Webb said. “We take it one game at a time, you know. We just tell them, ‘Forget everything else, take it one game at a time and everything will take care of itself. Just continue to work hard and get better every day.’ ”

The Sabers were playing without injured senior point guard J.R. Villon, who hopes to be back from issues in both ankles by Monday. Two more Maui High players recently left the team.

Tuesday was the third straight loss for the Sabers.

“I love the effort, we can’t make any excuses, nobody is feeling sorry for us,” Maui High coach Steven Vega said. “Things happen. One of the things that I keep talking about is we can only control what we can control. Don’t concentrate on things that we can’t control. Tonight, they gave great effort and I’m proud of them.”

Jerome Butac scored seven points in a 9-0 game-opening run for the Sabers, a streak that was broken at the 5:00 mark of the first period by Lahainaluna’s Levi Basturo, who scored on a put-back basket.

Kobin Harris scored in the paint for the Sabers to push the lead back to nine, 11-2.

Lahainaluna’s T.J. Galoia scored off a rebound and was fouled with 15 seconds left in the first quarter — he completed the three-point play to bring the Lunas within 16-11 at the end of the quarter.

Juztin Gaoiran sank a corner 3 to bring the Lunas within 16-14 to start the second quarter and Matthew Rabino scored to finish a fast break to tie the game 20-20 with 5;25 to go in the first half. Tre Rickard’s runner with 4:55 left gave the Lunas a 22-20 lead, and Basturo pushed it to four points moments later after a steal and layup.

Rickard took a pretty pass from Rabino to up the lead to 28-20 with 3:55 to go, bringing a timeout from Vega and capping a 10-0 Lahainaluna run.

The Lunas took a 34-25 lead into the locker rooms at halftime.

A pair of free throws by Harris with 2:22 left in the third quarter brought the Sabers within 42-36, but they would get no closer the rest of the game.

Rickard led the Lunas with 17 points and Rabino added 16. Harris had 18 and Butac finished with 15 for the Sabers.

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com

LAHAINALUNA (64)

Tre Rickard 17, Juztin Gaoiran 7, Malino Jacinto 8, Levi Basturo 2, Josh Tihada 0, Matthew Rabino 16, Sam Fifita 7, Sam Kahaialii 0, TJ Galoia 7.

MAUI HIGH (54)

Logan Nagamine 2, Jeremy Peros 4, Charlles Guansing 4, Joshua Tolentino 5, Jerome Butac 15, Dreiden Agaran 0, Christian Alejo 6, Kobin Harris 18, Fidel Ortiz 0.

Lahainaluna 11 23 13 17–64

Maui High 16 9 13 16–54

KS MAUI 56, KING KEKAULIKE 53

KAMEHAMEHA MAUI (56)

Logan Rickard 0, Jaxon Mossman-Smith 3, Pookela Aiu 5, Alec Tolentino 1, Steven Gushiken 0, Brevin Carillo 0, Marco Kahoohanohano 31, Bryson Reformina 2, Kale Spencer 14, Michael Kalalau 0.

KING KEKAULIKE (53)

Grayson Maguire 0, Bryson Uchima 0, Jaimes York 0, Jacob Wittenberg 11, Carson Yoshida 21, Andruw Paden 0, Kai Carbajal 0, Kaleb Chun 2, Akhil Fernando-Bell 9, Corey Frias 10, Aidan Griffin 0, Keanu Kupau 0, Trey Hunter 0.

KS Maui 11 11 17 17–56

King Kekaulike 16 14 13 10–53

MIL Standings

BOYS

DIVISION I

W L Pct. GB

x-Baldwin 9 2 .818 —

Lahainaluna 8 3 .727 1

Maui High 6 5 .545 3

Kamehameha Maui 3 8 .273 6

King Kekaulike 2 10 .167 71⁄2

DIVISION II

W L Pct. GB

x-Seabury Hall 8 0 1.000 —

Lanai 6 2 .750 2

Maui Prep 4 4 .500 4

St. Anthony 3 4 .429 41⁄2

Molokai 2 6 .250 6

Hana 0 7 .000 71⁄2

x-clinched regular-season title

Tuesday’s Results

Lahainaluna 64, Maui High 54

Kamehameha Maui 56, King Kekaulike 53

Thursday’s Games

Kamehameha Maui at Lahainaluna, 7 p.m.

Maui High at Baldwin, 7 p.m.