KALAHEO — Karl Dante of Team Lihu‘e 1 dropped a bucket in sudden death to give Lihu‘e its 43-41 margin over Westside Basketball, Monday night at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center. The see-saw battle between the Lihu‘e redshirts and Westside Basketball
KALAHEO — Karl Dante of Team Lihu‘e 1 dropped a bucket in sudden death to give Lihu‘e its 43-41 margin over Westside Basketball, Monday night at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center.
The see-saw battle between the Lihu‘e redshirts and Westside Basketball was one of three games played in the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation 11 and Under Winter Basketball League.
Kurt Napolion and Hunter Bethel scored a dozen points apiece to lead the Kaua‘i Ballers to a 34-22 showing over Team Lihu‘e 2, who got 11 points from its low post Tajh Mapuhi, eight points from Ronsen Fujii-Macabeo and a pair from Blaise Banquel.
Kicah Acoba, a strong guard for Lepo Ula finished with 16 points to lead the Lepo blueshirts to a 26-25 margin over the Papalina-White, who were led by Noah Thompson with 11 points, Trey Taba adding six points and Gunnar Burkman netting three points.
Justin Fune, playing the power forward position, kept tabs on Taba and added four points to the Lepo Ula win with Vayson Carineo ending with a pair.
Kelly Ragasa, topping the Westside Basketball scoring with 15 points before fouling out, pulled the opening game against Team Lihu‘e to a deadlock with a second effort of Kasen Castro’s shot with 1:21 showing in the clock.
He pushed Westside into the lead on a putback of Zechariah Ponting’s shot for the 39-37 margin before fouling out with less than a minute showing.
With the Westside low post gone, Michael Dasalia, finishing with a game-high 25 points, bucketed his second of two final-period field goals for the 39-39 stalemate at the 20-second mark after coming up empty on the and-one foul.
Shot attempts by Jayden Gandia and Brennan Suniga came up empty to push the game into overtime where Ponting, stepping up in the absence of Ragasa, put in a bucket at the 1:20 mark only to have Dasalia knot up the game with a swisher in the final 22 seconds to force the sudden death where Dante put in the go-ahead.
The 11 and Under players next take the floor Thursday at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center with three games on tap starting at 6 p.m., when Kaulupono takes on the Kaua‘i Ballers. Papalina-Blue and Papalina-White match up starting at 7 p.m., followed by the West Kaua‘i Hornets taking on Team Central starting at 8 p.m.
