The Kapa’a Warriors won the final game of the first round against the Waimea Menehunes, but no one is really certain by how much. Although the official scoring gives the Menehunes a 51-50 victory, a non-call for Eric Robbins in
The Kapa’a Warriors won the final game of the first round against the Waimea Menehunes, but no one is really certain by how much.
Although the official scoring gives the Menehunes a 51-50 victory, a non-call for Eric Robbins in the final seconds may have tacked on two more points for the Warriors, and according to fans and media, Seth Yamamoto’s bucket before the lights went out at Bernice Hundley were not recorded on the scoreboard when play was resumed.
Manny Henriques, in reporting what was written on his scoresheet, confirmed the two points weren’t counted during last night’s KONG AM 570 telecast. J Robertson, whose broadcast of the game appears tonight on Channel 6, said his footage is proof of it.
Emails flooded the Garden Island Sports department yesterday morning from fans who witnessed the mis-count, and an unofficial Waimea scoresheet also had Kapa’a at 43, not 41, before the power outage in Kapa’a.
The game was an outrage to the fans who knew the Warriors had won the game, and the non-call at the end didn’t make them any more pleased.
But, to be honest with you, I wasn’t angry at all. In fact, I was as giddy as a school boy.
Sure, my scoresheet didn’t make sense when it said Yamamoto scored six points in the last four minutes of the fourth. And yes, Kapa’a did win the game.
But who cares what the KIF put in its official books, because it had no bearing on how the first round panned out – Waimea already clinched the first round a week before.
What matters most is that Waimea was challenged, and will no doubt be challenged again in the second round.
Kapa’a, who seemed rather feeble in its first two outings of the season, is an entirely new and revamped team. Call it a “Hyde to Jeckyl” turnaround, and let’s just hope the Jeckyl side sticks.
They beat Kaua’i on Tuesday, and now they scared Waimea straight back to practice – to a place where skill is continuously refined.
The Menehunes won’t make as many mistakes, next time. They won’t commit as many turnovers and they sure won’t take the Kapa’a Warriors lightly.
“We won’t take any game lightly, because we know what the KIF is like,” Coach Matt Taba once said at the onset of this season. “Anyone can win on any given day.”
Honestly, I thought it was a courtesy statement. How thrilled I was to learn this week that what Taba said was entirely authentic.
We saw how Garrett Danner can run the Warrior offense. In fact, Waimea’s most sizeable runs came when the swift guard was on the bench.
We saw how important Seth Yamamoto is to Kapa’a down low, especially in his pre-power-out surge late in the fourth quarter. And Kaili Panui and Asher Cole showed that when they step up, Kapa’a can have a brutal offensive attack.
This is shaping up to become quite a nice rivalry.
Waimea may not be pleased with the way they played last night, but they sure don’t quit, and that’s always a good thing.
Treys from Alan Manuel and Winnie Arios to bring Waimea to within one and Jordon Abatiello’s bucket to pull the Menehunes ahead put together a team comeback effort that proved this team will never roll over.
Statistically, they’re still the best team in the KIF, and they won’t let anyone take that from them.
Add in Kaua’i, whose loss to Kapa’a on Tuesday was partly due to the absence of key guards Aukai Dennis and Alec Reichle, and we’ve got quite a three-some in KIF basketball.
This is going to be fun.
Let’s all put Saturday’s game behind us, because it was nothing but a blessing in disguise.
Humans aren’t infallible, we all know that. And mistakes are the best way to perfecting ourselves.
We should all be thankful that this happened now and not in a game that actually counts in the season standings.
We should also make sure it won’t ever happen again.
Note: When the going got rough, the players stayed docile. I’m a New York guy, and if something like this happened at a gym in the big apple I would have expected that people would end up in the hospital (or worse). Everyone should be proud of Kaua’i’s youth, who stayed calm during the confusion of last night’s game. And it was not only players who stayed calm, it was their peers as well. I was very impressed with their maturity.
