The Girls Under-12 league tipped off Tuesday night and the Boys 14-under division continued early-season matchups on Wednesday to round up community basketball action this week. Lokahi’s Brittney Carvalho celebrated her birthday in style as she chalked up numerous rebounds
The Girls Under-12 league tipped off Tuesday night and the Boys 14-under division continued early-season matchups on Wednesday to round up community basketball action this week.
Lokahi’s Brittney Carvalho celebrated her birthday in style as she chalked up numerous rebounds and putbacks to tally a 14-point showing at the buzzer during the opening night of the Girls 12 Under basketball program at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center.
Lokahi clinched a 48-8 win over the Hanamaulu Coyotes 2 in their opening night matchup.
Gamden Lorenz lead all scorers with 16 points.
Lorenz and Carvalho dominated the lane corraling numerous rebounds and putbacks to pace the Kapa’a-based squad coached by Milton Caspillo.
The Hanamaulu Coyotes 2 were shut down through five periods of play, but with just 15 seconds peeled off the final stanza, Maria Gascon forced a turnover at midcourt and outraced the Lokahi defense to finally open the scoring with the audience, including the Lokahi coach, erupting in cheer and applause.
Gascon repeated the feat on the inbound to another thunderous round of audience approval.
Coyotes 2 guard Mele Yama, one of the more petite players on the court, may have had her hair dissheveled by the frustration of trying to penetrate forwards almost double her height, but persistence paid off as Yama followed Gascon with two field goals before the final buzzer, swinging smartly around the posting of her own forward to nail the buckets.
Gascon and Yama each chalked up four points in the Hanamaulu loss.
The evening’s opener featured the winner of last summer’s league, the B&GC Waimea girls – coached by Darren Zablan – who overpowered the Hanamaulu Coyotes 1 team 38-6 despite a strong showing from Hanamaulu’s Chelsey Ah Nee.
Waimea’s scoring was led by Kia Barba, who chalked up 9 points in the win with Imo Durant adding 8 points.
Ah Nee had three points to pace Hanamaulu with Teeana Valpoon adding a pair in the loss.
The Raiders, coached by Brian Inouye, downed Maynard Shea’s Westside Hornets 26-10 in the third game of the night.
Shelcie Rapozo DelaCruz notched seven points to lead the Raiders scoring, and Sunni Acosta, Tori Espino, Shandie Amana and Natasha Werner each scored two for the Hornets.
Karen Matsumoto, one of the league’s coordinators, noted that there are a total of nine teams in the program that plays on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays between the Kalaheo and Kilauea neighborhood centers.
Teams include the B&G C Waimea, Kapa’a coached by Talbert Tacbian, Hanamaulu 1, Hanamaulu 2, the Lokahi Girls, Lihu’e Raiders, Westside Hornets, Kilauea 1, and Kilauea 2.
Tacbian’s Kapa’a girls will see their first action Saturday at the 1 p.m. game at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center.
– In the boys 14-under games held Wednesday night in Kilauea, the Lihue Lakers topped Kapa’a 31-26, the Puhi Wildcats were knocked off 41-37 by the Westside Hornets, and Kilauea got the 36-26 win over the Lihue Kings.
With just 17 seconds showing on the game clock, the Wildcats’ Brandon Ballesteros lofted a 3-pointer from beyond the arc, ripping the twine and forcing an overtime playoff as the scoreboard deadlocked the contest with the Westside Hornets 35-35.
Vincent Vea pushed the Hornets ahead with a quick bucket, but Ballesteros answered to keep the stalemate. Alden Lahip followed with a bucket, and another field goal by Brendan McDaniels sealed the win for the Hornets 41-37.
Puhi’s Ballesteros topped all scorers with 23 points. Timothy Kanehe, Keenan Emzman, and Chad Pillos each fired 3-point bombs for the Wildcats.
Lahip topped the Hornets’ scoring with 11 points followed by 8-point contributions from McDaniels and David Shea. Kahi Rita tallied 6 points to round out the Westside scoring leaders.
Heavy defensive pressure by the Kapa’a squad fueled a 31-26 win over the Lihu’e Lakers behind a 10-point showing from Michael Lindsey. Dustin Pascual aided the cause with 8 points in the victory.
John Penn and Bryan Girald combined to chalk up 22 of the Lakers’ 26-point total with Penn ending the night with 17 points and Girald tallying 5 points in the loss.
In the final game, Kilauea beat the Lihue Kings 36-26 behind the wily scoring of Kapena Cummings, who notched 14 points in the win. Alan Satta scored seven points for the Kings.
