Basketball tourney offers good tuneup
By Kyle Sakamoto
Advertiser Staff Writer
For the Kalakaua Basketball Foundation, the Aloha State Games provide a nice warmup for its Mainland tournament schedule later this summer.
Three Kalakaua girls' teams — 14-younger, 16-younger and 17-younger, are competing in the ASG's 17-younger basketball tournament at Kaiser High School.
Marlene Zeug, daughter of ASG executive director Mark Zeug, coaches Kalakaua's 16-younger team.
Her team will leave Wednesday to compete in the End of Oregon Trail Tournament (June 29-July 2) in Oregon City, Ore., and the U.S. Junior National Invitational (July 11-14) in Las Vegas. The 14- and 17-younger teams will leave later this summer.
"This is great practice for us," Marlene Zeug said. "We've been practicing by ourselves and the girls are getting kind of antsy. It's a good measure of where we're at."
Players on the 16-younger team include Elyse Umeda of Punahou, Caroline Beddow of Mid-Pacific and Tiffiny Shim of Kamehameha.
Punahou's Becky Hogue plays for Kalakaua's 17-younger team.
"The Aloha State Games are a very special thing," Hogue said. "I do wish there were more teams here today, but the chance to play against other Kalakaua girls is a great experience. It's a valuable experience and a good time to learn."
Hogue's coach on the 17-younger team is Clay Cockett of Interscholastic League of Honolulu rival Kamehameha.
"He is a wonderful coach, he's a man who knows what he's doing," Hogue said. "He did a good job of helping 10 girls who come from different worlds, combing them into a very good team."
Kalakaua's 14-younger team is coached by Dennis Agena.
In the boys' 17-younger division, things got a little heated yesterday in a game featuring Aliamanu Military Reservation and Waipi'o.
AMR coach Barry Batts was ejected in the first half for arguing an intentional foul called against one of his players.
"My player got hurt," said Batts about 30 seconds after he was ejected. "If a player gets hurt, you stop the game. Instead of my player coming off the court he committed a foul, but the referee called an intentional foul, which it wasn't.
"I don't know what association the referees are with, but they aren't doing the kids any justice. They aren't calling basketball the way it should be called."
Twenty games were played yesterday at Kaiser, with as many as three games being played simultaneously. The first games started at 8:30 a.m. and the final games at 4 p.m.
Each of the five boys and five girls teams played four games yesterday.
"Some of them (other teams) are good, some are alright, our team is doing pretty bad," said Waipi'o's Brandon Lowe. "We want to make it to the playoffs."
The games have no 3-point and half-court lines. Since there is no paint area in front of the baskets, three-second violations are not called. The free-throw line is a one-foot brown strip 15 feet away from the basket. On free-throw attempts, the officials line up the players on either side of an imaginary lane.
There is only three feet between the center and adjacent courts.
Referee Randy Inafuku, who officiated six games yesterday, collided with a player from another game.
"She more like ran into me," Inafuku said. "She was going after a loose ball. I'm surprised there haven't been more collisions."
The tournaments end today at Kaiser.
