By Paul Honda
Editor
HondaReport.com
Tuesday, January 20, 2004

HONOLULU—There are times when the cliché ‘gut-check time’ is surely overused.

For the mighty Mules of Leilehua, this is not sports chatter. The Mule basketball squad endured one of the most difficult weeks of defeat in school history, falling in double overtime to archrival Mililani, 65-61, and losing on a controversial, last-second bucket at Radford, 38-37.

Losing to division title contenders by narrow margins isn’t enough to flog oneself over. And the biggest problem at Radford, obviously, is correctible. Leilehua missed its final six free throws, giving away a chance to seal a win in the final seconds of regulation, and then, overtime.

“We will be back,” head coach Keith Spencer promised. “I will not allow that to overwhelm us.”

Leilehua, which began last week ranked No. 5 in the HondaReport.com Top Ten, is now unranked. A similar route was taken by Radford a little earlier in the season. The Mules (2-2 O’ahu Interscholastic Association West, 13-3 overall) are certainly not in lose-or-miss-the-playoffs mode, but a sense of urgency will probably help. A higher seeding only helps, considering the overall strength of the East.

If the regular season had ended over the weekend, Leilehua would be seeded sixth and would match up with upstart Castle in the opening round of the playoffs.

In the West, the Mules trail Mililani (5-0), Nanakuli (4-0), Kapolei (4-1), Radford (4-1) and Pearl City (3-2). The emergence of Kapolei, which graduates its first senior class this June, and Nanakuli has turned a normally flaccid West race into a battlefield for potentially epic games.

Leilehua gets a chance to narrow the gap quickly this week. The Mules host Nanakuli Wednesday, and then travels to Kapolei Saturday.

Stay tuned.

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