KALAHEO — The G-Unit’s Willis Batol was six-for-seven on charity stripe Sunday. But the missed charity shot was a heart-breaker as Team 1 came from behind to take a 43-40 edge. Silas Tacsiat of Notorious put on a court performance
KALAHEO — The G-Unit’s Willis Batol was six-for-seven on charity stripe Sunday. But the missed charity shot was a heart-breaker as Team 1 came from behind to take a 43-40 edge.
Silas Tacsiat of Notorious put on a court performance that might have been his career-best, but balanced scoring and bench depth gave the 56-40 win to the Kalepa Hillsiders in the Kaua‘i Youth Basketball Association Boys 18 and Over league at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center.
Batol finished with a game-high 18 points as the go-to guy for the G-Unit.
Battling from an 18-18 halftime stalemate, the G-Unit kept ahead of Team 1 who stumbled over bad passes and turnovers through most of the game until the final minute of play.
Team 1’s Jed Balmidiano scored all of game-total seven points in the fourth quarter, including a bucket with less than a minute remaining to pull Team 1 to a 40-39 deficit.
Kasey Okihara calmly sank a charity pair, his only score of the game, with 10 seconds remaining to pull Team 1 into the lead 41-40 and another charity pair by Jordan Cox with just under four ticks remaining iced the victory.
Following Batol, the G-Unit got 10 points each from Kekoa Prem and Reynante Villanueva and a pair from Winston Gee who arrived for the match in the second half.
Cox topped the Team 1 scoring with eight points followed by Balmidiano’s seven points. Kalen Abihai and Brendan McDaniels, forcing numerous turns in the final quarter, added six points each.
Brenden Cristobal added five, P.J. Oligo and Sean Inouye each finished with four points.
Russell Bocalbos opened the Notorious scoring with a three-point bomb after forcing a Kalepa Hillsider turnover.
But the Kalepa yellowshirts rebounded and despite a strong game from Notorious’ Tacsiat, Clifton Asuncion finished with a dozen points to lead the Kalepa scoring, eight coming in the third period.
Following Asuncion, Kalepa got nine points from Davone Florence, six coming in the second half and a trey in the opening quarter. Tall man Kaleo Cummings added seven along with Ian Lactaotao.
Preston Keough and Randy Vicoy finished with six points each and Austin Simao came up with five fourth-quarter points.
Tacsiat led the Notorious effort with a game-high 20 points followed by Bocalbos adding 14 points. Cody Iwasaki, a rebound factor for Notorious, finished with four and a pair from Glen Miguel rounded out the scoring.
The KYBA hosts the playoffs for the Girls 14 and Under league tonight with two games on tap starting at 6 p.m. at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center.
