KALAHEO — The Tigers, coached by Bill Suttell, made more noise than a mew on Tuesday night at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center. “They were ahead for two periods,” said Bobby Kamakele, coach for the Kaulupono Boys Division 3. “They had
KALAHEO — The Tigers, coached by Bill Suttell, made more noise than a mew on Tuesday night at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center.
“They were ahead for two periods,” said Bobby Kamakele, coach for the Kaulupono Boys Division 3. “They had a trey, but Lihue came back to win, 21-13.”
Sienna Martin-Oldfield triggered to the excitement, igniting the crowd when she launched the Tigers’ only trey in the fourth period.
The Tigers opened with a 4-1 first period and continued to lead 6-3 after two stanzas behind buckets from Olivia Gegen, Lexie Warnock and Martin-Oldfield while limiting the Lihue Girls to just a digit from Marissa Layosa and a bucket from Rebekah Corpuz.
The Lihue Girls, coached by Max Manera, warmed up in the third frame when Cierra Tanicala tickled the twine from outside the three-point arc and Layosa dropped three charity points to pull the game to a 6-6 deadlock at the break.
The crowd was treated to a battle of the three-ball in the fourth frame as Martin-Oldfield launched her trey to keep the Tigers close while Tanicala launched her second trey and Layosa punched the button on her first trey to pull the Lihue Girls ahead 17-11 after four periods of play.
Layosa topped all players with 11 points, seven coming in the second half followed by Tanicala with eight points and Corpuz’s deuce figuring in the win.
Martin-Oldfield topped the Tigers’ scoring on five points followed by Warnock with three points. Gegen and Risa Whetsel each had a pair in the effort.
The girls’ game was one of three played in Division 3, or youth in the seventh and eighth grade, in the county’s youth basketball spring league at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center.
Kamakele’s Division 3 Kaulupono boys ventured forth but was overwhelmed by Team Central 22-8 when Michael Angelo Dasalla set the pace and 11 points. Aiden Offley added five points including a second-half three-ball.
Marcus Charles and Travis Duran rounded out the win by netting a pair each.
Top gun honors for Kaulupono went to Noah Simao who notched seven of the team’s eight points. Evan Young added the digit in the effort.
Following a 16-4 first period deficit, the Kamikaze came back to stay close until the second half when Team Lihue “B” exploded for a 27-11 run behind the hot hand of David Pascua who flew for 16 points and got help from Christian Manera who netted a game-high 19 points in Lihue’s 57-30 win.
While Pascua spread his 16 points throughout the six periods, Christian had seven second-half points.
Keane Tibon added eight points, Keenan Moses finished with six points, Kai Villanueva added three and a pair from Nathaniel Gonsalves in the fourth period helped seal the win.
Takeshi Komar, who got high-point honors for the Kamikaze, came alive in the third period and fired six of his game-total 12 points in the frame.
Ryan Mones added 10 points including a pair of three-balls in the second period to help erase the deficit. He finished with three treys.
Kampbell Hanano, Tiger Fuggett and Dalson Cua rounded out the effort with a pair each.
The county’s youth basketball Division 3 spring games continue Thursday night and Saturday at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center.
