KALAHEO — Vinda Carineo, Jr., Ariel Lahip, Kahea Prem, Ashten Agor,and Clifton Callejo each tucked away six points to lead the Westside Heat to a come-from-behind 34-24 win over the G-Unit at the KYBA basketball games played Thursday night in
KALAHEO — Vinda Carineo, Jr., Ariel Lahip, Kahea Prem, Ashten Agor,and Clifton Callejo each tucked away six points to lead the Westside Heat to a come-from-behind 34-24 win over the G-Unit at the KYBA basketball games played Thursday night in Kalaheo.
Prem came up with a critical bucket with 1:05 showing in the third period to pull the Westside Heat to a 21-21 stalemate with the G-Unit.
Agor followed that with a bucket, and treys by Callejo put the game away as the Heat limited the G-Unit to just a trey from Kalen Kimura in the final frame.
The G-Unit jumped out to outscore the Heat 7-6, 8-6 in the first two quarters behind the shooting of Kimura and Bradley Heiser, but couldn’t keep up the pace as Kimura was held to just three of his game-total seven points in the second half, and Heiser was limited to just a pair.
Meanwhile, the Heat turned up the knob a notch as Prem led their 10-point third frame with Lahip joining Callejo to lead the fourth frame, much to the delight of the audience who cheered on Lahip, one of the smallest players in the league.
In addition to the six-point scorers, the Heat got pairs from Rommel Pascual and Taylen Acoba in their victory.
Heiser topped the G-Unit scoring with eight points followed by Kimura and Winston Gee each finishing with seven points. A pair from Donovan Harrison rounded out the math.
Kalaheo picked up their first win of the season in the evening’s opener as Bransen Agu exploded for 18 points in their 31-9 win over Island School.
Sean Inouye added five, Javin Balisacan chipped in four, and pairs from Kalen Kakutani and Danny Enrique rounded out the books.
Skylar Schone finished with three points to lead Island School with Makana Ledesma, Aaron Pigott, and Brandon Taylor each notching a pair.
The Lihu‘e Pacers put up a good defensive effort, but were out-heighted by the Wailua combination of Kaira Kupihea and Victoria Tuttle in the Girls 12 Under game that was sandwiched between the Boys 14 Under and 12 Under contests.
For some of the Wailua players, this was their second consecutive night of hoops starting Wednesday night when they tangled with Waimea as the Wailua II before matching up against the Pacers, Thursday.
Kupihea and Tuttle each finished with eight points to lead Wailua in their 26-14 win, Tuttle scoring all of her points in the second half.
Kira Nakamura and Leinaala McCabe each finished with four, and a pair from Reggie McCabe rounded out the books.
The strong Wailua presence posed by the Wailua pair held the Pacers to just a single first-half bucket from Kimberly Liberato, and a stepped up second half saw Janessa Grady notch six of her game-total nine points. Erin Navarro finished 2-4 at the charity stripe and Randee Layosa was 1-2.
The Boys 19 Under and Girls 19 Under season gets under way starting Tuesday, May 31 when Kapa‘a “B” takes on Team Swish starting at 5 p.m. at the Bernice Hundley Gym in Kapa‘a.
Over in Kalaheo on the same night, the Lihu‘e On Fire tangles with Waimea in a Boys 19 Under game starting at 6 p.m. The finale features the Lady Raiders taking on Waimea in a Girls 19 Under contest starting at 8 p.m.
