WAIMEA — The Menehune junior varsity boys and the varsity Dragons of Maui kicked off the Kapaa Goodwill Tournament on Thursday afternoon. The Dragons of Hana High School, of the Maui Interscholastic League, edged Waimea’s JV squad in that opening
WAIMEA — The Menehune junior varsity boys and the varsity Dragons of Maui kicked off the Kapaa Goodwill Tournament on Thursday afternoon.
The Dragons of Hana High School, of the Maui Interscholastic League, edged Waimea’s JV squad in that opening game as time ran out.
“We designed the play for a 3-point play, but the play wasn’t there,” said Hana coach John Kahalehoe. “That was just Pono making a big play. He made big plays all game. He was our offensive leader tonight.”
Down two points with seconds left, Hana junior Pono Lecker-Tolentino threw up a prayer from outside the 3-point line. The ball went off the glass and went in at the buzzer, giving Hana a 34-33 victory.
Lecker-Tolentino was the Dragons’ leading scorer with 16 points.
Waimea recovered from an early 12-3 deficit to finish the third quarter tied, 22-22.
“Turnovers caught up with us,” Kahalehoe said about giving up the early lead. “And we lost easy rebounds. That’s what cost us.”
Menehune freshman Lacin Montemayor was Waimea’s leading scorer, getting all nine of his points in the second half — six coming from 3-pointers.
“We played hard. We’ll just keep going and keep learning from it,” said Waimea JV coach Aaron Hesapene. “We did very good, being a JV team challenging a varsity team. We did excellent. It’s a learning thing for us.”
Hesapene added his players had “butterflies” early in the game, but were able to shake it off and make it a closer contest in the second half.
“Most of them are first-year JV players. Butterflies got, not get in the way, but just nervousness,” he said. “In the second half, we got a little bit more comfortable. Shot the ball more. Just more confidence in the second half.”
Hana struggled from the free throw line, going 4-18. Waimea was 2-5 from the charity stripe.
“We’re going to work on that during practice. Our players know that’s the easiest shot in basketball,” Kahalehoe said. “We still have a young team. We have three seniors and the rest are all underclassmen. A lot of them, it’s the first time playing basketball. We’re building on this game, and we look forward to (seeing) what we can do.”
Results of the rest of Thursday’s games from Waimea and Kapaa High Schools were not available by press time.
Tournament play continues today. Kauai High School will host three games, starting with Hana versus Kauai High’s B team at 3:30 p.m. Kapaa will host two games, starting with Waimea A versus MIL’s King Kekaulike at 5:30 p.m.
