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Girls' Basketball: St. Joe tourney has Final Four feel
Posted at 02:45 PM
Top-ranked Kahuku, No. 3 Konawaena and No. 4 Kalaheo are in the field of the Saint Joseph Invitational, which begins tomorrow in Hilo. Please kokua by visiting our affiliate partners. Mahalo!
By Paul Honda HONOLULU—The boys’ basketball season is barely over, and Chico Furtado is finally getting into girls’ roundball mode. Furtado, who completed his first season as head coach of the Kalaheo boys’ basketball team, has the luxury of having a veteran staff with the girls. After years of guiding the girls’ program, it’s almost mechanical the way Furtado and his staff—comprised in part of brothers Thomas and Kimo—ease into girls’ hoop season each spring. This time around, the Lady Mustangs—ranked No. 4 in the HondaReport.com Girls’ Basketball Top Ten—are leaning quite heavily on a crew of young, but talented players. “Even our experienced players are only juniors,” Furtado said. Taylor Smith, a serious candidate for Player of the Year honors both in the O’ahu Interscholastic Association and statewide, will lead the way. The 5-foot-10 forward didn’t sit still in the off-season, playing volleyball for the first time. Among the top newcomers is point Shannadee Canon, a freshman. “She is a lot like Sharon Wahinekapu,” Furtado said. Wahinekapu was an all-league point guard at Kalaheo who now plays at Portland State. Furtado won’t downplay the fact that his team is going to face a steep learning curve very soon. The Saint Joseph Invitational opens tomorrow at Afook-Chinen Hilo Civic Auditorium. Kalaheo plays host St. Joseph tomorrow, and that won't be a cakewalk. Six of St. Joe's nine players are volleyball players from the Cardinals' powerhouse program. For these six, they're playing basketball for the first time on the varsity level, and they include Fairfield College-bound Jazzmin Pa'akaula, Lindsey Lee and Ashley Hanohano. If Kalaheo gets past St. Joe, Konawaena will likely be there in the semifinal round. The Lady Mustangs want the challenge of playing Konawaena, the No. 3-ranked team in the HondaReport.com Top Ten. Though Kalaheo is 9-0 already, having tougher competition will be valuable, Furtado said. And about Kalaheo’s one-point win over Punahou two weeks ago … “That was when Punahou had just four practices,” Furtado said. Of course, the tournament already includes Kahuku. The Lady Raiders are unbeaten and ranked No. 1 in the HondaReport.com Top Ten. The rest of the field is filled out by Big Island Interscholastic Federation teams, including title contenders Honoka'a and Waiakea. Honoka'a is also a young team, but already has a 24-point win over OIA West title contender Mililani to its credit. The Dragons also have a win over Saint Francis, a team on the cusp of making the Top Ten. Honoka’a is led by Kari Heers, freshman Keisha Kanekoa and sophomore Haunani Liftee. “The girls are really talented,” longtime head coach Daphne Honma said. “But they need to believe in how good they are.”
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