By Paul Honda
Editor
HondaReport.com
Friday, Feb. 13, 2004

KAILUA—Kalaheo’s route to the state tournament required a temporary stay in hoops purgatory Friday night.

None know more so than Sam Wilhoite, who also knows the virtues of patience now. That’s saying a lot for a dominant player who routinely puts up 25 points on the best opposition in the state.

With a tenacious defensive effort, Moanalua kept the state’s top big man smothered and stifled. The 6-foot-7 senior, with four points entering the final quarter—and zero points in the first half—waited his turn.

With Kalaheo ahead by just two points early in the fourth quarter, Wilhoite scored his team’s next 10 points before the Mustangs finally pushed the Menehune away for a 55-47 homecourt victory Friday night at Kalaheo’s gym.

Wilhoite finished with 13 points, and teammate William Elliott tallied a team-high 14 to lead the Mustangs.

“He played really well, and he had some big help-side steals,” Kalaheo head coach Chico Furtado said. “And Neil (Bowers) had a helluva game.”

Joseph Nishimura paced Moanalua with 20 points.

Kalaheo (11-1 OIA, 20-5 overall) will host another quarterfinal winner, Kaimuki, Wednesday for the right to play for the league championship. Ranked No. 4 in the HondaReport.com Boys’ Basketball Top Ten, Kalaheo gets a chance to avenge a regular-season defeat.

And most importantly, the Mustangs are back in the state tournament. Furtado is counting his blessings.

“We did not like this matchup. Not only is Moanalua a formidable opponent, but we played them three times before,” he said. The struggle against Moanalua had Furtado recalling one of his many seasons as Kalaheo’s head coach for girls’ basketball.

“It reminds me of Brandy (Richardson’s) first year. We beat Punahou twice, and lost to them for the state title,” he said.

Moanalua knew precisely where to give Kalaheo problems. The Menehune stayed with a 1-2-2 zone for much of the game, but Elliott eventually found openings in the corners for his 3-point bombs.

“They did a good job of closing off our shooting,” said Furtado, a longtime assistant in the boys’ program before becoming head coach this season. “Every time we tried to pull away, we made mistakes. Give Moanalua a lot of credit.”

Moanalua finished the season 8-4 in OIA play despite its tremendous defensive work. “It’s disappointing. You want it so bad for the kids,” Moanalua head coach Byron Cheng said, pausing for a few seconds to gather his composure.

“They don’t get to have the great experience of playing for the championship and going to the state tournament,” he said. “But I have nothing to regret. I love those guys.”

Those guys did something few other foes had ever done to Wilhoite by shutting him out for an entire half.

“We backed Sam,” Cheng said. “There’s now way we were going to front him. One-on-one down low, he’s tough. He ended up hitting shots over 6-5, 6-6 guys. Our big guys did their job.”

Wilhoite’s normally prolific scoring was rebuffed much of the night by Moanalua’s twin towers, 6-6 Marquise DuVall and 6-5 Eric Keys.

Early in the fourth quarter, the game was still in the balance. Kalaheo led 34-32 when Elliott fed Wilhoite for a post basket. Seconds later, Wilhoite powered his way to the basket and drew a foul from DuVall, who sat down with his fourth personal foul.

Wilhoite hit the foul shots to give Kalaheo a 38-32 lead with 5:13 to play.

Darin-Jay Shimokawa sank two charity shots for Moanalua, but Wilhoite answered with a three-point play down low. Kalaheo’s 41-34 lead seemed relatively comfortable before Nishimura sank a 3-pointer from the right wing, took a foul, and sank the ensuing free throw for a four-point play.

Leading 43-39 with 3:50 remaining, Furtado called time out and sent his team back onto the floor with a spread.

Furtado platooned Elliott and sharpshooter Theo Fujita for offense, and then sent in Neil Bowers and David Moore for defense and rebounding. The tactic worked.

Kalaheo outscored Moanalua 9-1 thanks to baskets by Wilhoite, Bowers and Elliott. The Mustangs led 50-40 with 1:12 to go. They sealed the win by sinking 5-of-6 attempts from the foul line in the final 48 seconds.

Until Wilhoite asserted command, Mustang fans had plenty to agonize about. Nishimura, a senior guard, came out firing. He drilled a trey from the right wing to get Moanalua’s offense going and added a pair of tough drives to the hoop late in the quarter.

Moanalua went on a 6-2 run to begin the second quarter, thanks in part to Mike Loeschke. The 6-2 forward hustled for a layup to pull the Menes within one point, and then followed his own miss with a putback to give Moanalua its first lead, 15-14, with 3:57 remaining in the half.

Loeschke duplicated the feat, crashing the offensive glass to rebound his own miss again. That basket gave Moanalua an 18-15 lead with 1:58 remaining in the half.

Elliott sank a 20-footer from the left corner—his third trey of the half—and the game was tied at 18 with 1:42 to go before intermission.

Wilhoite, an occasionally fiery court leader, got some words of wisdom from his equally fiery head coach in the locker room.

“He said I should get back to the post,” Wilhoite said.

Furtado said allowing big men to spot up at mid-range is not a problem when done sometimes. “I don’t want him out there all the time. We just challenged him to attack the basket. He was settling for outside shots,” he said.

The Mustangs went to Wilhoite as the second half opened. He scored on a follow shot, and then swished two free throws as Kalaheo took a 22-20 lead.

Bowers, who contributed in many areas, sank a 3-pointer from the right corner to open the lead to five points. It was one of Kalaheo’s six treys—Moanalua made three—and that was a major reason Moanalua couldn’t get over the hump.

“We thought they’d penetrate from the top and go low to Sam,” Cheng said. “But they penetrated and kicked it out, and we didn’t rotate well all the time.”

Moanalua pulled within one point once, 28-27, but Kalaheo answered with a 3-pointer by Fujita on a pass from Bowers. After a Menehune turnover—one of 13 by the visitors—Chris Tumaneng fed Bowers on the fastbreak for a layup and three-point play.

That gave Kalaheo a 34-27 lead with 2:18 to go in the third quarter.

DuVall hustled for an offensive board after Wilhoite swatted a shot, scoring as time expired in the third. Nishimura sank a pair of free throws to start the fourth quarter, bringing Moanalua within 34-32.

Then the Sam Wilhoite show finally began. He finished with nine rebounds and two blocked shots.

Getting motivated for Kaimuki will not be difficult from a coach’s standpoint. “Preparing for them, knowing you’ve made states, now we can concentrate better,” Furtado said. “We’ll be outsized, but last time, we didn’t shoot well. Last time, (Kekoa) Onaga killed us with penetration.”

That game, won by Kaimuki 56-48, was at the Bulldogs’ smaller, louder gym.

“It’s a different atmosphere here,” Kalaheo guard Matt Nakashima said.

Wilhoite believes some of that difference is related to Kalaheo’s proud history. “We have a chance to play in our house this time. They have to come here. We have all those,” he said, waving toward a gym wall covered with championship banners.

“And all the fans on our side. We’re gonna be on orange paint,” Wilhoite added. “Not green and yellow.”

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