KALAHEO — Waimea will square off against the Gee’s Angels for the Girls Under 17 division title this afternoon starting at 2 p.m. at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center. At 1 p.m., the Kapa‘a Titaz square off against Kaulupono for third
KALAHEO — Waimea will square off against the Gee’s Angels for the Girls Under 17 division title this afternoon starting at 2 p.m. at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center.
At 1 p.m., the Kapa‘a Titaz square off against Kaulupono for third place in the Kaua‘i Youth Basketball Association summer league.
Those results came about after two hard-fought battles Thursday night in Kalaheo when Waimea, with Elton Montemayor and Brandon Moises in the coaches box, went head to head against the Kapa‘a Titaz.
Brandee Victorino, enjoying a tremendous inside game during the season finale against Kapa‘a earlier in the week, continued to sizzle and finished with eight points to lead the blueshirts to a 33-22 win over the Kapa‘a Titaz in the second of two playoff matches.
Earlier in the night, the Gee’s Angels, top-seeded in the league, earned their title spot when Toafa Paua nailed the bucket on a second effort sparked by a Jessilyn Aki take-away of an inbound play for the 39-37 edge.
Victorino was joined by Jayme Jacinto, the shooting guard for the Waimea Menehune during the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation season, who finished
the night with seven points.
The scoring leaders were not alone, though, as Keesha Lagazo returned from her summer vacation just in time to help Jacinto with ball movement on the court, at one point in the second period, Lagazo taking the ball away, and trying to get control until she was prone on the floor.
Throughout the match, defense was the key and Waimea began to chip away from the second period when it managed to force Kapa‘a errors and capitalize.
Mahea Hanie-Grace, the strong guard for Kapa‘a High School in the KIF program, led the Titaz with seven points.
Defense also was the key in game one as the top-seeded Gee’s Angels and Kaulupono battled neck-and-neck through three quarters with Kaulupono having the advantage by not more than four points throughout.
With just over a minute remaining in the game, Aki snaked an inbound play and, on a breakaway, went straight to the hoop, getting help from Paua on the putback for the 37-34 bulge.
Aiko Grande answered for Kaulupono, deadlocking the match with just 53 ticks remaining.
With both teams battling for control, Gee’s Angel Lehua McCabe broke the stalemate with 14.6 seconds showing on a bucket. But things were not over, yet.
Kaulupono had its opportunity to take control with 11.2 second remaining when it missed the front end of a one-and-one foul shot. With 4.3 ticks remaining, Kaulupono choked on a charity pair
for the final math as the Angels controlled the board.
Aki finished with a game-high 16 points in the win followed by Leina‘ala McCabe adding nine points.
Grande topped the Kaulupono scoring with 11 points with Kathleen Cadiente netting 10 points.
