OLINDA — The Seabury Hall girls basketball team wouldn’t give in to a gritty Lanai team in their opening-night game in Maui Interscholastic League Division II action on Wednesday at the Erdman Athletic Center.

The Spartans won the game 43-38 after trailing for most of the contest. Seabury Hall senior guard Brittlay Carillo scored 20 points, 13 in the second half, to lead the way before leaving with a knee injury with just over two minutes to play.

“It’s sore, but I don’t think it’s going to be longterm,” Carillo said of her left knee that was wrapped in ice after the game. “I should be back soon. I kind of ran into one of the girls and then my knee just popped.”

The game itself, Carillo said, “felt good, I didn’t want to lose and I knew I needed to contribute, like I know I needed to contribute to the team because we’re all new. Or most of our team is new.”

Carillo scored nine of Seabury Hall’s 11 points in the third quarter to help the Spartans take a 27-25 lead, outscoring the Pine Lasses by eight in the quarter.

Lanai’s Souina Seiuli’s jumper tied the game 27-27 just 30 seconds into the fourth quarter.

Seabury Hall’s Pio Tu’ivai sank a 3 to make it 30-27 with 7 minutes to play, and Carillo took a nifty pass from Tu’ivai and finished a three-point play to make it 33-27 with 6:13 to play, the Spartans’ largest lead at the time.

Tu’ivai scored off a pass from Carillo in the lane to push the lead to 35-27 with 5:40 to go.

A Carillo free throw with 4:17 to play made it 36-29, but Lanai’s Haley Ostrander answered with a free throw and Keala Montgomery added two baskets to pull Lanai within 36-34 with 2:46 remaining.

Tu’ivai, who finished with 16 points, scored on a drive before adding a free throw with 58.9 seconds left to put the Spartans back up 39-34.

Tu’ivai hit Lily Schneider-Rasmussen with a great pass under the basket and Schneider-Rasmussen converted the layup to make it 41-34 with 40 seconds left.

“They were up and up, actually,” Tu’ivai said of the Pine Lasses. “Being that we don’t have our starting five and we have injuries now, we just had to push through. I just told the girls on the court, ‘Whatever you do just have fun.’ … I think our girls did really good.”

The Spartans were missing two starters — Leela Waterford is out for about three more weeks with a knee injury and Meleana Sjostrand is currently traveling while looking at college options on the Mainland.

“That’s tough, she’s a rock star of a player,” first-year Seabury Hall coach Leif Sjostrand said of losing Carillo.

“We’ve got seniors who are super experienced, know how to play basketball,” the coach added. “Pio and Britt are super-seasoned players and they took it in their own hands and just really started doing what they need to do.”

The game was tied 7-7 after the first quarter and remained close early in the second.

Ostrander scored inside two straight trips down the floor, the second time a three-point play, to give the Pine Lasses a 15-13 lead with 4:07 to go in the first half. Eliasha Romero’s baseline jumper followed by a Romero layup and a 3-pointer by Ostrander on the next trip pushed Lanai’s lead to 22-13.

A free throw by Tu’ivai with 2:05 to go stopped a 12-0 Lanai scoring run. Carillo scored the next time down the floor to bring the Spartans within 22-16.

Carillo sank a 3 to cut the Spartans’ deficit to 22-19 with 7:12 left in the third quarter. One minute later, Carillo sank a pair of free throws to cut the Pine Lasses’ lead to one, but Seiuli answered with a basket on the other end to push the advantage back to three.

Carillo stole an inbounds pass and went coast-to-coast to bring the Spartans within one again. On the next possession Carillo fed Tu’ivai in the lane, where Tu’ivai scored to give Seabury a 25-24 lead with 3:07 to go in the third quarter.

After Montgomery sank a free throw to tie the game, Carillo finished a fast break off a pass from Tu’ivai with 53 seconds on the clock to give the Spartans a 27-25 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Ostrander and Seiuli led Lanai with 10 point apiece in their first basketball game of any kind in nearly two years due to COVID-19 concerns. The Pine Lasses, who have no seniors on their roster, have been practicing this season for just three weeks.

“You know, 22 months of layoff will do that to us, too,” Lanai coach Christian Yumol said. “So, we just have to regroup and come back tomorrow. I think it’s nice for everyone in the state to finally play. For us, 22 months is literal — we haven’t played anything at all, anything. It’s something that we have to adjust to.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.

LANAI (0-1)

Leisha Figuerres 6, Kamrynn Kanno 0, Alexa Pascual 0, Keala Montgomery 8, Eliasha Romero 4, Sivanny Seiuli 0, Haley Ostrander 10, Souina Seiuli 10, Talia Agliam 0.

SEABURY HALL (1-0)

Pio Tu’ivai 16, Brittlay Carillo 20, Lily Schneider-Rasmussen 2, Kaileigh Cabanilla 0, Marley Kokubun 5, Elleanna Moore 0, Zoe Mounts 0.

Lanai 7 15 3 13–38

Seabury Hall 7 9 11 16–43

*****

Preseason

Maui Prep boys 57, Maui High 43

*****

MIL Standings

DIVISION I

W L Pct. GB

Maui High 4 0 1.000 —

Kamehameha Maui 2 1 .667 1 1⁄2

Lahainaluna 2 1 .667 1 1⁄2

Baldwin 0 3 .000 3 1⁄2

King Kekaulike 0 3 .000 31⁄2

DIVISION II

W L Pct. GB

Seabury Hall 1 0 1.000 —

Hana 0 0 .000 1⁄2

Molokai 0 0 .000 1⁄2

Lanai 0 1 .000 1

Wednesday’s Result

Seabury Hall 43, Lanai 38

Today’s Games

Lanai at Seabury Hall, 11 a.m.

King Kekaulike at Baldwin, 5:30 p.m.

Kamehameha Maui at Lahainaluna, 5:30 p.m.