KALAHEO — In a matter of seconds, the Lihue Lakers’ Bryan Brown strung together a pair of buckets and a free throw to propel the Lakers to a 23-22 edge over the TL (Team Lihue) Warriors on Tuesday night during
KALAHEO — In a matter of seconds, the Lihue Lakers’ Bryan Brown strung together a pair of buckets and a free throw to propel the Lakers to a 23-22 edge over the TL (Team Lihue) Warriors on Tuesday night during one of three Extreme Termite league basketball games at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center.
Chasing the Warriors through two periods, a long ball from Dylan Watanabe pulled the Lakers to an 8-8 stalemate with less than three minutes remaining in the 6-minute stanza. The Lakers continued to burn the twine behind a pair of buckets from Brown, being answered by a Warrior bucket from Kanaloa Yasutake for an 18-12 lead heading into the 16-minute final quarter.
The defensive battle continued through most of the final period until Brown’s bucket kept the Lakers in the chase, 20-21 in the final seconds.
The Warriors’ Daesen Martinez was fouled and sent to the line for two with 1.9 ticks remaining in the game. His first shot at insuring the lead bounced harmless, and the second shot give Lihue the 21-22 lead that was reversed at the buzzer when Brown dropped the go-ahead bucket in heavy traffic.
Brown topped all scorers in the physically defensive see-saw with 11 points followed by Watanabe ending with six points. Isaiah Salas dropped four first-half points and a pair from Austin Green in the opening stanza rounded out the math.
Yasutake topped the Warriors’ scoring on a balanced eight points followed by Martinez and Kahi Apao each dropping five points. Pairs from Xaedan Valdez and Jordan Calulot closed the effort.
Earlier in the evening, Lindcey Constantino dropped a dozen points to lead the Hanapepe Hotshots to a 32-9 showing for the TL Warriors-Blue who got three points apiece from Hunter Corpuz and John Vincent-Sibuma.
Joshua Rego of the Kauai Thunder dropped 12 points, including a pair of treys, and low post Isaac Mirey added nine points as the Kauai Thunder outplayed Papalina Orange, 38-16 to preserve its undefeated record in the boys division at the Extreme Termite league.
Kaina Andrade, the sole fifth grade student in the all-fourth grade team, topped the Papalina Orange with nine points with Christian Vito adding three points from the charity stripe.