Mililani used a hot-shooting first period to build a big early lead and then held off Moanalua, 49-34, last night to win its first O'ahu Interscholastic Association boys basketball championship.

A vocal crowd of about 800 at McKinley's Student Council Gym watched the Trojans, ranked No. 10 in The Advertiser's statewide Top 10 poll of coaches and media, improve to 13-3 in the regular and postseason and earn the OIA's top seed and first-round bye in next week's state tournament.

They will begin play in Thursday's quarterfinals.

Mililani, which entered the league tournament as the Western Division's No. 3 seed, became the first West team to win the OIA title since Moanalua in 1990. (Moanalua switched to the Eastern Division in 2002).

And the Trojans did it without starting point guard Curtis Murakami, who suffered a torn achilles tendon in his right leg in Wednesday's semifinal victory over Campbell and is out for the season.

"I told Curtis we would bring it home for him, and we did," said Mililani senior forward Scott Burns, who finished with a game-high 14 points last night. "He ran our team, he was our leader. That's my boy, I've played basketball with him since small age. So when he got hurt, we played for him."

Murakami, in a full-leg cast and walking on crutches, dressed in his uniform and sat at the end of the bench last night. During pre-game warm-ups, the Trojans wore black T-shirts with "Murakami" and his jersey number 12 on the back.

Moanalua scored the first basket just three seconds into the game on a fastbreak layup by Josh Kure off the jump ball, but Mililani responded with 10 straight points. Ryan Hua broke the string with a baseline jumper to close it to 10-4 with 4:05 remaining, but the Trojans then ended the period with a 9-0 run to lead 19-4.

"That put us in a chase mode, and it was an uphill battle all the way," said Na Menehune coach Greg Tacon. "They're talented, and they have all the pieces — they have length, they have shooters, they have wide guys to take up space in the lane, they take care of the ball. They're long on defense, and that gave us trouble."

Moanalua cut it to 26-16 after Shawn Richey's layup with 2:09 left in the half, but Aaron Lenchanko answered with a 3-pointer with 1:33 remaining to give Mililani a 29-16 lead at the break.

The Trojans maintained the 13-point spread in the third quarter, but Na Menehune closed to 40-32 midway through the fourth after another layup by Richey.

Mililani then closed it out with a 7-2 run.

"I knew we needed to come out strong, because Tacon is a mastermind and he would have found a way to match up with us," Trojans coach Hiram Akina said. "We were fortunate we made our shots, and the kids executed. Everybody was filling Curtis' role, everybody did a great job."

MILILANI (13-3) 19 10 11 9 — 49

MOANALUA (11-5) 4 12 11 7 — 34

MILILANI — Devin Hall 0, Scott Burns 14, Cody Kilthau 0, Moshi Mabry 0, Nehoa Akina 7, Devon Castanres 0, Aaron Lenchanko 8, Warren Duke 8, Nick DeMusis 4, Reid Pangelinan 3, Bo Keto 0, Jon Keen 5, Kekoa Paglinawan 0, R.J. Griffin 0. Totals 18 9-14 49.

MOANALUA — Josiah Kauhola 9, Randy Starks 0, Shane Aquino 0, Stevie Austin 10, Josh Kure 6, Marcus Monroe 0, Ryan Hua 5, Shawn Richey 4, AJ Kirkman 0, Richard Villasenor 0, Maurice Allen 0. Totals 14 4-4 34.

3-point goals: Mililani 4 (Burns 2, Lenchanko 2). Moanalua 2 (Austin, Hua).

Read Wes' blog on prep sports at http://blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com.