KALAHEO — Clarence Sales, the coach for Team Central division 3 girls, said time ran out before the team got started Tuesday night during the Kaulupono Summer Basketball League games at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center. Facing a 24-0 halftime deficit,
KALAHEO — Clarence Sales, the coach for Team Central division 3 girls, said time ran out before the team got started Tuesday night during the Kaulupono Summer Basketball League games at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center.
Facing a 24-0 halftime deficit, Team Central sparked a short comeback early in the second half, scoring nine of its 11 points in the first four minutes of the second half. The effort came up short as the Kaulupono division 3 girls held on to wrap up a 38-11 victory for the title.
“It’s been a long summer for the girls,” Sales said. “We have one girl leaving for Honolulu next week, and the rest go back to school. They’ve been playing together for a long time, and I told them it was not a matter of losing. We just ran out of time before we could get started.”
Kaye Serapio led Kaulupono with 17 points.
Kaulupono worked all sides of the court and fired off four treys in the first half — one by Serapio, Tiana Joy Ramos, Braelyn Cayaban, and guard Kierstin Gummerus.
“We’re working toward playing a different game,” said Bobby Kamakele, Kaulupono coach. “We’ve been watching the boys play and are trying to use their style of play in our game.”
Cayaban added eight points to the victory and Ramos finished with six points. Gummerus was limited to her first-half trey and a pair from Hazel Serapio rounded out the win.
Amalya Sales and Bailey Perreira sparked the Team Central girls with four points apiece. Jasmyne Ballesteros added three points.
Papalina division 2 boys will advance to the finals Saturday morning after holding off Team Lihue, 36-27. The orange shirts will face the Kapaa Warriors, who downed the Kamikaze, 62-21, for the division title.
Team Lihue will take on the Kamikaze for third place in the division 2 boys on Saturday at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center.
Team Lihue’s JJ Juntilla scored his only bucket in heavy traffic with 6:21 showing on the game clock against Papalina. The bucket knotted the contest, 23-23, before Gunnar Burkman dropped a bucket with 3:54 to pull Papalina out of the deadlock, 25-23. He followed that with an and-one for the 29-23 bulge with 3:10 showing before Team Lihue’s Vhincent Agreda netted a bucket for the 29-25 effort with 2:18 showing.
Burkman, who shot a perfect 7-7 at the charity stripe, locked up the win with a charity pair with 49 ticks showing. He ended with high-point honors on 14 points, including a first-half trey.
Papalina finished with three from outside the three-point arc, one each from Taylon Yadao, who finished with four points, Christopher Cromartie who ended the night on eight points, and Trey Taba with three points. Jaykob Nakaahiki-Young added a pair and a digit from Makana Tavita rounded out the win.
Chysen Barretto netted 26 points to lead the Kapaa Warriors division 2 boys’ win over the Kamikaze. He got help from Noah Rull with 16 points and Lexton Camat added seven.
Takeshi Komar topped Kamikaze with six points with Micah Matsunaga ended with five points.
Kala Rull was one of two Kanu Elite players who netted seven points to lead the North Shore team to a 25-17 edge over the Kauai Thunder. Keaka Kauhane helped the win with four points and a pair from Loni Tafea rounded out the leaderboard.
Keylan Felipe-Calapatia led the Kauai Thunder with 10 points, followed by Shayden Peralta with three points and Tyrus Duran and Matthew Rivera each ending with pairs.
The Kaulupono Summer Basketball League begins its summer wrap-up Saturday with seven games, including division title matches, starting at 8 a.m.
More playoffs are on tap for Monday, Tuesday and the season concludes with two games on July 30 at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center.
