Ohana hana hou: Mills delivers emotional repeat at CCS champs

In a war-of-attrition season that saw the Vikings average just 42.6 points per game, however, it didn’t come easy. No. 1-seed Mills (14-13) overcame a one-score deficit midway through the fourth quarter, finishing on a 7-0 run to claim a 35-30 victory over No. 2 Santa Cruz.

“We knew that was going to be a grind-it-out, physical type of game, and baskets were going to be hard to come by and they’d be at a premium,” Matsu said. “And I’m just glad we hit some big shots down the stretch to kind of pull away and create some separation.”

Freshman guard Ellie Chow hit a clutch midrange jumper to tie it 30-all, and senior Kaylee Huynh followed with a picturesque dribble-drive turnaround jumper from the middle of the key to put the Vikings ahead in the final two minutes.

After senior Kelly Ho knocked down 1 of 2 free throws with 23 seconds remaining, to push the lead to 33-30, the spotlight moment shined on Huynh with four seconds to play when she stepped to the stripe for a pair of free throws. The four other Vikings on the floor, Ho, Alana Stonebarger, Amaya Moore and Layla Wong gathered at midcourt, as Huynh knew she needed convert just one free throw to clinch the title.

“I just saw all four of them huddled up together and they had so much hope in me and trust,” Huynh said. “I just knew I had to hit those down and I could go back and [celebrate] with them after.”

Huynh went on to hit both free throws, but Santa Cruz called a timeout after the first one, allowing her teammates to rush the free-throw line to celebrate.

“Her, as a senior, it couldn’t be more fitting,” Matsu said. “That’s our third CCS championship in ... four years. For her to step to the line in a pressure environment like this, and just have the confidence to hit the free throws and extend the [lead] was huge, it really was.”

It has been storybook stuff, indeed, for a class of Mills seniors whose run of three CCS titles in four years was interrupted by tragedy.

It was just prior to the 2023-24 when former head coach Dave Mastu, Justin’s father, died at age 54 after suffering a stroke in October 2023. Dave Matsu was the head coach of record for the 2022-23 CCS Division III championship run, though he served the role of an assistant coach that season after handing the reins to Justin Mastu, with the father-and-son team coaching side by side.

Known as “D-Matz” in the Mills basketball community, Dave Matsu took over the program in 2007-08 and built it around one word, “ohana,” the Hawaiian word for family.

“We say it all the time,” Justin Matsu said. “The way we love one another, the way we care for one another, the way these kids celebrate each other’s successes. ... These kids buy in to this culture, and the standard here, and good things happen when you do that.”

The reinvented Vikings had to dig deep this year, graduating eight seniors after last season’s CCS championship. Mills relied on two freshmen from the outset and added two more for the playoffs, rostered five juniors, and leaned heavily on Moore, a dynamic defender in the post, who only started playing organized basketball within the last two years.

“She’s been amazing,” Huynh said. “I’m so glad that we picked her up. It’s only her like second or third year here, and we’re so grateful to have her. She’s an amazing big. She’s always hustling, and she’s always there when we need her to be there.”

The dynasty seemed to be crumbling in early January. Mills was decimated by injuries to Wong and junior Alyssa Penas early in the season, and started the 2026 calendar year by dropping four straight games, then opened Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division play with a 2-6 mark. After finally getting some momentum, Ho, the team’s top shooter, rolled her ankle in the final week of the regular season and didn’t return until the playoffs.

“Getting those kids back was huge,” Matsu said. “But our young kids just did an amazing job the whole first half of the year while we were missing Layla and Alyssa, and growing each and every day.”

It was another unsung hero who stepped up late in the third quarter Saturday, as junior center Nina Kerri scored her only points of the game to send it into the fourth quarter tied 24-all. Mills’ post players loomed large, as Moore put on a show, totaling three blocked shots and three steals in the second half.

Moore grabbed a team-high eight rebounds, while Chow and Kerri totaled five apiece. But it was Kerri’s instincts on a loose ball under the Vikings’ basket that saw the junior scrap for possession and quickly put up an underhand layup for the final basket of the third period.

Each team led twice in the fourth, with Ho, who totaled a game-high 17 points, connecting for an early 3 from up top to swing Mills ahead 27-25. Santa Cruz junior Nadia Delgadillo answered with a corner 3 to put the Cardinals back up by 1. The Vikings tied it 28-all when Wong hit 1 of 2 free throws, but Santa Cruz went back ahead on a put-back by junior Mila Conn midway through the quarter.

“It’s been an up-and-down year just in terms of different styles of games,” Matsu said. “We’ve scored a lot of points, but also given a lot. We’ve played some really close games where baskets were at a premium.”

Mills held the Cardinals (18-10) scoreless from there, but had to overcome a scoring rut of its own. The Vikings missed seven straight free throws during one stretch of the closing period. When Huynh stepped to the line with a 33-30 lead, Mills had missed 7 of its last 8 free-throw attempts.

“At the end of the day it’s just staying composed,” Huynh said. “We have so much trust in each other and we stayed consistent this whole game. And our togetherness has just been so strong this whole season.”

It was an emotional win for Huynh and her fellow underclassmen, most of whom were coached by Dave Matsu early in their high school careers.

“With D-Matz, he set this program up for so long,” Huynh said. “And the one thing we could do was win this for him. It’s the first time in history that we went back-to-back, and that’s what we wanted to do our sophomore year. But I’m really glad that we got to get it back this year. It means so much to all of us.”