KALAHEO — Waimea coach Kim Nichols was worried that a lot of his players were stricken by the (flu) bug that has been making its rounds, but when the dust settled, the Waimea team might have come up a little
KALAHEO — Waimea coach Kim Nichols was worried that a lot of his players were stricken by the (flu) bug that has been making its rounds, but when the dust settled, the Waimea team might have come up a little short, but not for lack of effort as the Eastside boys in green edged the whiteshirts, 39-32 at the county’s 14 and Under boys basketball games played at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center, Wednesday night.
Hayward Halog and Jayraid Watanabe combined for 14 points to lead Waimea, Halog netting eight points in an effort that fell short, and Watanabe contributing six points.
Rilen Bayot and Jarrick Ornellas each netted four.
Matt Mamarr and Peyton Navarro each finished with three, and pairs from Ronnel Constantino and Bayton Bayot rounded out the Waimea effort.
The Eastside, pulling away twice late in the game, was led by Elijah Phillips who finished with a game-high 17 points followed by Bryson Gonzalez adding ten markers. Kyle Van Buskirk finished with six points, Jason Iloreta added three, and a pair from Devin Saiki rounded out the victory.
Late in the fifth period, Waimea’s Peyton Navarro brought the game to a 26-26 stalemate with one half of a charity pair with a chance to pull the whiteshirts ahead.
With a dozen ticks remaining in the frame, Watanabe pulled the whiteshirts into the lead for the first time on a field goal to end the period 28-26.
But, a charity pair from Phillips combined with a turnover generated by Saiki to pull the Eastside up, 32-38 with four minutes left in the game.
Lactaotao answered for Waimea at the 2:25 mark only to have Corey Pang fire off a pass to the Eastside’s Zac Gardien for the 35-30 bulge with 1:12 showing as Waimea’s free throw attempt by Halog came up empty.
Earlier in the evening, the Lihu‘e Lakers controlled the Gee Unit, 50-30, building their lead throughout the second half led by Travis Steine and Brian Gerando.
Gerando finished with a game-high 18 points followed by Steine adding 10 points in the win. Ian Lactaotao added eight, Jeremy Rocha chipped in six, and Jordon Tottori finished with five points.
A pair from Devin Lopes and a digit by Scott Sasan rounded out the Lakers’ score.
Aric Casino paced the Gee Unit with 11 points followed by Cody Valpoon finishing with five markers. Anderson Dreich and Thomas Gausepohl each added four, and Canaan Higa finished with three.
Alex Kamala, Howie Feller, and Bradley Heiser each chipped in a digit in the Gee Unit effort.
Basil Walton came up with 15 points to lead Lihu‘e On Fire’s control over the Westside Hornets, 52-32. Kekoa Prem led the Hornets with a dozen points.
