KALAHEO — Angelo Ramento’s charity pair with 23 seconds showing put the game away for Ho‘ouila, Monday night. Papalina put up a strong defensive showing in the final period at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center, keeping Ho‘ouila out of scoring range
KALAHEO — Angelo Ramento’s charity pair with 23 seconds showing put the game away for Ho‘ouila, Monday night.
Papalina put up a strong defensive showing in the final period at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center, keeping Ho‘ouila out of scoring range until the 1:30 mark when Ramento found the bucket to break a 31-31 deadlock.
He followed that with his charity pair more than a minute later to ice the win in the third of three games in the county’s 13 and Under boys basketball program.
Papalina went to the three-ball but attempts by Trey Aguano at the :16 mark, Tystin Gummerus and Kainoa Simao came up empty in its 35-31 loss.
“They’re a dangerous team,” said Sean Andrade, one of the Papalina coaches prior to the tipoff. “Ho‘ouila plays more street ball and that makes them unpredictable, and dangerous. But you gotta play the game.”
Ramento finished with a game-high 13 points, including the crucial four go-ahead points in the sixth period. He was followed by Kerwin Morano netting 10 points. Wheeler Batol netted a second-period trey en route to five points and Morean Clement rounded out the leaders with four first-half points.
Papalina scoring was paced by six players netting four points each: Aguano, Gummerus, Javan Torres, Vaughn Thompson, Dominic Armstrong and Kelson Andrade. Kainoa Simao, finishing 1-7 at the free throw line, netted three points with Jessem Cumlat and Tate Hashimoto being held to a pair each.
Overall, Papalina was in the chase but could only drop nine free throws in 24 appearances at the line compared to Ho‘ouila who dropped two in seven attempts.
This was Papalina’s second heart-breaking loss after suffering a 38-26 drop to Hanakila, undefeated in the season, Saturday at the Kaua‘i High School gym.
The exciting Monday night matchup was being scrutinized by coach Dino Pabre and four of his Westside players who had just come off its second one-point win after holding off Team Central 21-20 in the second of three games.
“The other game was 28-27 against the G Unit,” said guard Peterson Lahip who led the Westside win Monday night with nine points.
Throughout the Papalina-Ho‘ouila matchup, Pabre coached his players in anticipation of its Ho‘ouila matchup scheduled for March 2 at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center.
Following Lahip, who had his brother Ariel and parents watching the tight competition against Team Central, A.J. Martinez netted five points including a second-period go-ahead three-point play where Westside, chasing a 4-1 first-period deficit came alive with five points while holding Team Central to no score for a 9-7 bulge at the half.
But Team Central exploded in the sixth period for a 9-2 showing against Westside, led by Jedidaia Blake who got all of his game-total seven points in the period and a strong set-up effort by low post Kanalu Simao.
Blake and Simao paced the Team Central scoring with seven points each followed by Lansen Eto adding four points and a pair from Kaimana Cummings in the sixth period rounding out the effort.
Earlier, Una Masaniai and Steven McCabe paced the G Unit with eight and six points, respectively to lead the team to a 39-15 showing over Lihu‘e that got four points from Chanse Ramirez.
