Kalaheo continues OIA dominance

By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Kalaheo Mustangs celebrate their victory over Mililani last night for their fourth straight OIA basketball title. Photos by Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

The OIA title is the fourth straight for the Mustangs, in their first season under Chico Furtado. It also is Kalaheo's 15th league crown overall and 12th in the past 14 years.

The previous championships all came under former coach Pete Smith, who stepped down after last season then suffered a heart attack last Halloween. Smith was in a coma-like state for two weeks but is recovering and even made a surprise appearance at the Mustangs' semifinal victory on Wednesday.

"I wanted to win this so much for Coach Pete; it meant so much to me to see him there (Wednesday)," said center Sam Wilhoite, who scored 31 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and blocked nine shots last night. "I'm glad to win it for him, and for Coach Chico, too. For his first year, he did a great job."

It helps to have a player like Wilhoite, a 6-foot-7 senior. He dominated the inside offensively and defensively and even sank two 3-point shots for good measure.

On Wednesday, Kaimuki employed a zone defense that collapsed three players on Wilhoite every time he touched the ball. But shooting guard Theo Fujita made them pay by scoring 21 points, including five 3-pointers.

Last night, Mililani (12-1) also started out in a zone but had to switch to a man-to-man defense after Kalaheo (13-1) built a 10-point lead in the second half.

"We tried to make them work to get the ball into Sam, but sometimes the help on the outside was slow," Trojans coach Mike Coito said. "I thought if we kept the score in the 50s, we'd have a good chance to win. We played good defense at times, but when we'd get the stop we couldn't come back and score on the other end. We had too many cold spells on offense."

Mililani actually was up 23-18 early in the second period, but the Mustangs ended the half with an 11-0 run. The Trojans closed it to 31-27 on Aaron Kanno's jumper, but Kalaheo answered with a 6-0 run to lead 37-27 and Mililani could never get closer than seven points the rest of the way.

Kalaheo's Sam Wilhoite gets a piece of a shot by Mililani's Clarence Gray in last night's game at McKinley gym. Wilhoite finished with nine blocks as the Mustangs defeated the Trojans to capture their fourth straight OIA basketball championship.

"My boys did a great job of feeding me the ball, and knocking down the jumper when they were open," Wilhoite said. "This is a totally different team than we were in the preseason. Theo (Fujita) and Will (Elliott) broke out as scorers, and everybody's ball-handling has come a long way."

Furtado agreed.

"This team has improved leaps and bounds," Furtado said. "We still make mistakes, but we don't make them in bunches as much and the guards are playing with a lot more confidence."

The one constant, of course, has been Wilhoite.

"Even though our other guys are shooting better now, I told them that Sam is still our guy," Furtado said. "He's our beast in the post, and we've got to find him when we can."

KALAHEO (13-1) 17 12 14 17 — 60
MILILANI (12-1) 17 6 12 9 — 44

KALAHEO — Matt Nakashima 3, Neil Bowers 4, Theo Fujita 12, Sam Wilhoite 31, Will Elliott 6, Chris Tumaneng 2, David Moore 0, Daniel Phair 2, Kahua Hollinger 0, Clifton Pires 0, Marvin Judd 0, Jason Tanaka 0, Elias Ayau 0. Totals 21 14-18 60.

MILILANI — Alex Patykula 12, Puna Neumann 10, Aaron Kanno 5, Clarence Gray 0, Nick Rogers 6, Mikhail Mabry 1, Scott Neumann 2, Jon Santos 8, Lorenzo Abernathy 0, Andrew Tokumi 0, Stevie Viel 0, Maka Kahoano 0, Charles Richie 0, Ryan Shular 0. Totals 16 8-10 44.

3-point goals — Kalaheo 4 (Fujita 2, Wilhoite 2), Mililani 4 (Patykula 2, Kanno, Rogers).

Third place

Kaimuki 46, McKinley 39: Kekoa Onaga scored 12 points and Tony Fa'asoa added 10 to lead the Bulldogs (11-4) past the host Tigers (9-6).

The teams were tied at 31 late in the third period before Kaimuki went on a 6-0 run and pulled away in the fourth quarter.

Abel Werner led McKinley with 16 points and Lokahi Holder added 11 points for the Tigers, who will make their first state tournament appearance since 1989 next week.

McKinley (9-6) 4 20 7 8 — 39
Kaimuki (11-4) 13 12 10 11 — 46

MCKINLEY—Mark Nakatsuka 1, Abel Werner 16, Shane Quisano 9, Iakopo Taumua 0, Lokahi Holder 11, Golden Lawrence 0, Joshua Valdez 2. Totals 15 6-8 39.

KAIMUKI—Isaiah Ano 0, Dexter Tautofi 10, Tone Fa'asoa 10, Jimmy Miyasaka 8, Kekoa Onaga 12, Nick Milan 6. Totals 17 9-12 46.

3-point goals—McKinley 3 (Holder 2, Quisano 1). Kaimuki 3 (Onaga 2, Miyasaka 1).

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2456.