Small schools like University High and Maryknoll have won boys basketball state championships before, and the O'ahu Interscholastic Association's three entries into this week's Division II state tournament — 'Aiea, McKinley and Farrington — have each made it to the big stage in the past.

But for Hawai'i Baptist Academy, which has an enrollment of about 400 in grades 9 through 12, the new 12-team tournament that starts today opens a door that had been virtually closed for the past 25 years.

"It's nice that this particular team will have an opportunity that our previous teams never had," said HBA athletic director Deren Oshiro. "Everybody's excited."

From 1965 through 1982, the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association held a largely forgotten "A" Tournament. But since then, the only chance that Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II schools like HBA had to earn a state tournament berth was to qualify for the ILH's DI third-place tournament and then win it. Oshiro said he can't remember a DII team even winning a first-round game.

"It's always been tough," Oshiro said. "Our school has always followed the spirit of the ILH by-laws, so we don't recruit or give athletic scholarships."

HBA (11-3) opens tournament action today against Moloka'i (8-4) at 6 p.m. at Farrington.