LIHU‘E — As referee Lenny Rapozo ran in and signaled with his arm “good,” the Kapa‘a half of the gym erupted, as did the entire Warriors team, leaping around the court as newly-crowned champions of the 2010-11 Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation
LIHU‘E — As referee Lenny Rapozo ran in and signaled with his arm “good,” the Kapa‘a half of the gym erupted, as did the entire Warriors team, leaping around the court as newly-crowned champions of the 2010-11 Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation basketball season.
Spam Lindsey gathered an offensive rebound and put back a layup as the horn sounded to give Kapa‘a a 57-55 double-overtime victory in Tuesday night’s KIF title game at the Kaua‘i High School gym.
The fifth meeting between the two evenly-matched squads was as close as expected, with four quarters not being enough to determine a winner.
The second extra session, which began with the score at 55-55, started with a missed shot by the Raiders and a Warrior rebound. That would be the last action on the Kaua‘i offensive end, as Kapa‘a played keep-away for the final 3:40 of the game, spreading the floor and daring Kaua‘i to come out and guard.
Once the Warriors went to work with 12 seconds left, Kainoa Colipano took a jumper from the left corner, which hit the far rim and bounded off. Point guard Willis Batol managed to get the rebound and put the ball back up, but it caromed long into Lindsey’s hands, who immediately went up and scored off the backboard.
The deafening noise in the gym had the officials and players initially unclear if the horn had sounded prior to the score, but the call was quickly made and Kapa‘a began its celebration with its supporters on the court.
The strategy to hold for a single possession turned out to work for Kapa‘a, as it had also held the ball for the final 1:39 of the first overtime session. The limited chances amounted to only six points scored in the eight extra minutes of play.
Batol was Kapa‘a’s leading scorer with 15, including three 3-pointers.
Keane Agoot scored 12, six coming in the fourth quarter. Lindsey and Daniel Reis each had eight points, while Kainoa Colipano had seven points and was big on the glass. Jude Cruz had four points and Bradley Coloma finished with three, which came on a triple to open the night.
Bryan Andres had a game-high 21 points for Kaua‘i, 15 of them coming in the second half.
Joe Duronslet finished with 10 points, while Alden Ho had nine. Donavan Harrison scored six, Nathan Wong had four, Anthony Guerrero had three and Kerwin Moreno rounded out the scoring with two.
It was a game of runs that saw Kapa‘a continue to come back in the fourth quarter. A Ho jumper off a feed from Andres game the Raiders a 45-40 lead, but a Batol layup later evened the score at 46-46. The guard caught the Kaua‘i players napping as he took a sideline inbounds pass and raced to the rim with a number of Raider backs turned.
Ho converted a three-point play with 2:12 remaining that gave Kaua‘i a 53-50 advantage, but with just over a minute to play, Agoot finished a driving layup to again knot things up at 53-53.
The Warriors got the ball back with 47 seconds showing and ran the clock all the way down until Coloma misfired on a 3-pointer that was gathered by Kaua‘i, who called timeout with 3.2 seconds remaining. An inbounds play wound up getting Duronslet a half-court heave that almost went in, but was immediately waved off as being after the buzzer.
The first overtime had just two buckets, with Guerrero nailing a runner early in the period for a 55-53 Raider lead, but Batol snatched an offensive board and scored the follow to re-tie the game.
Andres got a good look for the win at the end of the initial OT, taking a turnaround jumper at the top of the arc that softly hit the front of the rim and came off just short of a dramatic Kaua‘i win.
The Warriors started the game hot from long range, nailing four 3-pointers for an 18-13 lead in the second quarter — the last three consecutively for a 9-0 run.
Kapa‘a went to the locker room holding a 24-21 lead.
A Reis triple gave the Warriors a 29-23 lead in the third, but the Raiders responded with a 15-3 run and held a 38-32 lead on a driving layup by Harrison.
Batol didn’t let his team linger for long, nailing a three, then getting a steal and knocking down another triple just before the buzzer to even things up at 38-38 entering the fourth quarter.
Kapa‘a finishes the season 10-3 and will now go to the Hawaiian Airlines HHSAA Boys Basketball Championship tournament, which will run from Feb. 16-19 on O‘ahu.
