Kalaheo seeks third straight OIA title

Advertiser Staff

Despite a slow start and a young team, Kalaheo finds itself in a familiar position — playing for the league basketball championship.

Kalaheo, with 12 underclassmen on its 14-player squad, achieved its goal by overachieving.

"This is the youngest group we've ever had and they set it as their goal at the beginning of the year getting the best seeding as possible and they wanted to win the OIA championship," Kalaheo coach Pete Smith said. "Now we have that opportunity."

Kalaheo has won eight of the past nine OIA championships and 10 of the past 12, all under Smith. But this season wasn't a slam dunk for the Mustangs. They started 5-3 before winning five in a row.

A fourth seed in the Eastern Division, they had to defeat Kapolei and then unbeaten and West No. 1 seed Radford, 46-34, on the road to reach the semifinals.

In Wednesday's semifinal against Kaimuki, they won on senior Zane Cabral's 23-foot, 3-point basket as time expired for a 43-41 victory.

"We just wanted to push it up and look for the best shot. Zane hit the biggest shot of the year," Smith said.

"He's been the guy the past couple weeks. He's just taken this team and put them on his shoulders and taken over."

"I've been taking (over) senior leadership," said Cabral, who is averaging 11.0 points a game. "I've been driving more and trying to pump guys up and keep the guys together as we go farther and farther in the playoffs."

In their previous meeting on Jan. 22, Kaimuki defeated Kalaheo, 52-42.

Leilehua finished second in the West after missing last year's state tournament. The Mules advanced by beating Mililani, 60-49.

Kaimuki (10-2) will meet Mililani (9-4) for third place at 5. Leilehua plays Kahuku for the JV championship at 3:30.

All four varsity teams have qualified for next week's state tournament.

Kalaheo has qualified for states all 18 years under Smith's leadership (1984-87 and 1990-2003).

ILH PLAYOFFS

Eric Shaver scored 17 points as fifth-ranked Kamehameha defeated Maryknoll, 39-25, last night to advance to the championship of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Postseason Basketball Tournament.

Willy Melemai scored nine points and Caleb Spencer added eight for the Warriors, who will host Punahou tonight at 6:30 in the tournament final.

Tonight's winner will receive the ILH's third berth in next week's state tournament.

Pat Torres led Maryknoll with nine points, including two 3-pointers.

MARYKNOLL 11 3 4 7—25
KAMEHAMEHA 8 10 5 16—39

MARYKNOLL—Kawika Calizer 5, Michael Faria 1, Kevin Lee 2, Westin Lee 1, Michael Serai 2, Patrick Torres 9, Stacey Wong 3, Jimmy Yi 2.

KAMEHAMEHA—Radford Hepa 0, Aaron Kahaloa 1, Willy Melemai 9, Galen Santana 2, Eric Shaver 17, Caleb Spencer 8, Waika Spencer 2.

3-point goals—Maryknoll 3 (Torres 2, Calizar 1).

• Punahou 38, University High 37: Drew Monahan scored 11 points, including two 3-pointers, to help the Buffanblu hold over the Junior Rainbows.

Stanley Fisher added eight points for Punahou.

John Duro scored 14 points and Ben Nishimoto added nine for UHS, which outscored Punahou 8-1 in the fourth quarter.

PUNAHOU 21 8 8 1—38
UNIVERSITY High 8 9 12 8—37

PUNAHOU—Reid Fowler 0, Michael Lam 0, Jason Sakata 2, Stanley Fisher 8, Drew Monahan 11, Andrew Amigleo 6, Scott Otake 0, Daniel Bertao 0, Chris Friedemann 4, Brenton Lee 7, Kasey Ko 0. Totals 15 3-7 38.

UNIVERSITY HIGH—Jeris Nakamasu 0, John Duro 14, Ben Nishimoto 9, David Johnson 6, Tommy Chun-Ming 1, Chris Beebe 2, Ric Kodama 3, James Cabras 2. Totals 14 7-13 37.

3-point goals—Punahou 5 (Amigleo 2, Monahan 2, Lee 1). University High 2 (Johnson 1, Nishimoto 1).

• Kamehameha wins JV: Ikaika Hardie scored 14 points and Mike Ni'i added 13 as Kamehameha defeated Iolani, 59-57, to capture the ILH junior varsity championship.

Jon Takamura and Kawika Shoji each scored 14 for Iolani.