KAPAA — The three-day Kapaa Goodwill preseason basketball tournament has come to a close with the final five games hosted at Kapaa High School on Saturday. “I think the tournament went terrific. I think the teams liked it. A lot
KAPAA — The three-day Kapaa Goodwill preseason basketball tournament has come to a close with the final five games hosted at Kapaa High School on Saturday.
“I think the tournament went terrific. I think the teams liked it. A lot of them are committed to come back next year,” said Kapaa varsity boys head coach John Kaneholani.
Of Saturday’s five games, four were won by teams of the Kauai Interscholastic Federation.
“It says a lot for all three (KIF) teams. That’s all we need, just some good competition,” Kaneholani said. “If we can compete with these guys, we should be pretty good. Every year, it’s getting better and better.”
Kaneholani hopes to have a full tournament for the girls next year.
“Our school always wanted to make a girls tournament,” Kaneholani said. “We already have two teams committed. So now we just need to get one more.”
Kapaa B 59, Hana 21
Kapaa’s junior varsity team defeated Hana of the Maui Interscholastic League, 59-21, to open Saturday’s tilt.
The JV Warriors out-rebounded the Dragons en route to winning that contest.
“We had two goals in the game — to out-rebound the team and to be aggressive. That’s it,” said Kapaa JV coach Kamahalo Kauhane. “We kept it simple, and that’s pretty much how want the kids to play.”
Warriors sophomore guard Chysen Barretto scored 15 points for Kapaa. Senior center Shaka Kalalau scored seven for the Dragons.
Kapaa girls 33, Hanalani 30
Kapaa’s varsity girls team topped Hanalani of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, 33-30, in the day’s second contest.
Kapaa had an 18-12 lead at halftime, but free throws helped the Royals close the gap. Hanalani made 11-18 in the second half.
Kapaa’s Tori Daligcon-Pomaikai had 14 points, eight in the second half. Hanalani’s Alexa Nava had eight.
Warriors head coach William Aki was not available for comment after the game.
Kapaa A 41, Hanalani 38
The varsity Warriors won its game versus the Royals of Honolulu, 41-38, in Saturday’s third game.
Following a double-digit lead at halftime for the Warriors, Hanalani cut the deficit to as low as two. A pair of free throws from Royals senior guard Aaron Leong shrunk Kapaa’s lead, 38-36.
The Warriors held on to secure a home win.
“I think the boys stayed poised. Even though Hanalani is a good team, they got shooters and they were on a comeback, but our boys stayed poised,” said Kapaa coach Bronson Bautista. “All we told the boys was to keep their composure. Any basketball team really needs it. If you keep your composure, you have a good chance at getting a W. Luckily, we had it.”
Kapaa’s Christian Roslin had nine points. Leong led his team offensively with 17 points, 10 of which were made in the second half.
Kauai 52, King Kekaulike 48, 2OT
It took two extra periods, but Kauai High ground out a win against King Kekaulike of the MIL, 52-48.
“These kids are scrappy. You got to understand, we’re a young team, but they scrapped,” said Kauai High head coach Ipo Yoshioka. “As long as they keep believing in what they’re supposed to do and what we need to do, we’re OK. It’s preseason and we got a long road to go, so we’re going to keep working. And we’re going to keep teaching.”
The Red Raiders trailed at halftime, 25-20. Kauai then got an offensive spark from senior guard Kaone Miguel with 10 points in the second half to end regulation, 39-39.
Kauai senior forward Kekoa Tecson scored six points and King Kekaulike senior center Don Thompson had nine in the first overtime period, which ended in a 48-48 stalemate. Kauai then converted crucial free throws in the second overtime period to ice the win.
Tecson had 15 points for the Red Raiders. Thompson was the game’s leading scorer with 30 points.
Hawaii Baptist Academy 36, Waimea 31
The Menehune varsity boys had a 20-17 lead at halftime, but couldn’t hold on to secure a five-game sweep for the KIF.
Waimea fell to ILH’s Hawaii Baptist Academy, 36-31, in Saturday’s last game at Kapaa’s home gym.
“We did pretty all right. These guys, they pressed a lot. They pressure the ball a lot,” said Waimea head coach Chris Acoba. “We don’t have a true point guard that can handle the ball. We were trying to figure out, through these preseason games, to find out what point guard we’re going to use during the season. But other than that, overall it was pretty good.”
The Eagles outscored the Menehune 19-11 in the second half en route to the final result.
Waimea’s Kelly Ragasa had 11 points. Eagles guard Micah Mitchell scored 16 for HBA.
The KIF girls basketball regular season begins Dec. 15 and the boys season will start Dec. 23.
