WAIMEA — Kauai’s Bryce Johnson-Cormack slipped the ball through the hoop in the final seven ticks to break a 54-54 tie and clinch the 56-54 match for Kauai High School Saturday night at the Clem Gomes Gym in Waimea. Three
WAIMEA — Kauai’s Bryce Johnson-Cormack slipped the ball through the hoop in the final seven ticks to break a 54-54 tie and clinch the 56-54 match for Kauai High School Saturday night at the Clem Gomes Gym in Waimea.
Three ticks remained and Waimea called a time out to plan strategy for the final three seconds.
“They’ve got to go for the win,” said Merrill Carvalho, a Kauai Interscholastic Federation official who was in the stands with other nail-biting spectators.
Keoni Gaoiran had the inbound duty for Waimea, rifling the ball to DJ Pabre who dribbled and fired from about the half court line.
The clock ticked and the buzzer sounded as Pabre’s shot went wide of the backboard.
“They had to go to either DJ, or Briggs Agu,” said Sean Andrade, a Kauai assistant coach. “We had to take that away.”
Earlier, Kauai controlled the game, holding Waimea to bay with an average five-point margin.
Pabre ignited a Menehune effort that closed the gap, igniting the crowd with a buzzer-beating bomb from way outside the three-point mark. Pabre’s shot was teased by Kai Newall who buzzed the twine from the outside to give Waimea a four-point deficit, 45-41.
“Kai is someone we brought up from the junior varsity,” said Hans Reeves, a Waimea assistant coach. “We needed another guard, and he’s already dropped three treys. He’s made big contributions to this team. He’s a good addition.”
Pabre opened the final stanza with another distance shot, pulling the Menehune to within a digit, 45-44. With 6:19 remaining on the clock, Pabre gave Waimea its first lead of the night with a pair, 46-45.
The seesaw continued until the final 40 seconds when Briggs Agu dropped a charity pair to deadlock the match, 54-54.
“Waimea had a good game plan,” said Ipo Yoshioka, the Kauai coach. “Both teams played well. We knew they would come out gunning.”
Gaoiran topped the Waimea scoring, pouring in 14 points in the game, including a charity pair. Pabre finished with 13 points, including six of Waimea’s 13 fourth quarter points, and Agu ended with eight points.
“They’re good shooters,” Reeves said. “When they get into the rhythm, they can hit 20 points in a game. But everyone is making sacrifices for the team. We’re rebuilding in the season. When we started, we had 16 boys, and at one point, we were down to just nine.”
Johnson-Cormack finished the night with a game-high 16 points, eight dropping in the final period, including the game-winning bucket in the final seconds.
“He’s been getting frustrated with the traveling calls,” Yoshioka said. “But we can work on that.”
Christian Manera and Gunnar Burkman added 10 points apiece to round out the scoring leaders.
Earlier in the evening, Christopher Cromartie dropped 10 points and David Pascua added seven points to lead the Kauai junior varsity to a 45-30 showing over the junior Menehune. JhanelMar Cadiz topped the effort with 10 points for Waimea with Joel Soriano adding seven points.
Waimea next hosts Kapaa on Wednesday at the Clem Gomes Gym when the JV match tips off at 5:30 p.m. followed by the varsity game starting approximately 20 minutes following the completion of the JV game.
Kauai, playing three games within five days, enjoys a bye until Saturday when it hosts Kapaa at the Kauai High School gym.
