HondaReport.com - Girls' Basketball: Konawaena, Kahuku advance to St. Joseph tourney final

Girls' Basketball: Konawaena, Kahuku advance to St. Joseph tourney final

Top-ranked Kahuku withstood a fine piece of strategy from Kamehameha-East Hawai'i, and Konawaena overpowered Kalaheo in the semifinals of the Saint Joseph Invitational Tournament Friday night.

After 460 miles on a cranky, yellow school bus, the Konawaena Wildcats have collected two more wins and sit in the finals of the Saint Joseph Classic.

Konawaena, with its fastbreak at full speed, raced to a 20-point, first-quarter lead en route to a 63-37 win over Kalaheo Friday night.

If anything would be worse than two round trips across the Big Island in less than 36 hours, it would be to have injuries and illness, as was the case for Kalaheo. Ranked No. 4 in the HondaReport.com Girls’ Basketball Top Ten, the Lady Mustangs wanted to be at full strength against Konawaena.

Instead, McDonald’s All-America nominee Taylor Smith struggled with a lingering foot injury. Freshman Shannadee Canon led Kalaheo with 10 points despite a nagging cold. Randi Farstead came off the bench to add eight points for Kalaheo, which sustained its first loss after 10 victories in preseason.

Konawaena (9-2), ranked third in the HondaReport.com Top Ten, gets a shot at unbeaten, top-ranked Kahuku tonight for the tourney title. Kahuku outlasted a pesky Kamehameha-East Hawai’i squad in the other semifinal. Final scores were not available for that game and the two early consolation bracket matchups.

The Wildcats got balanced scoring for the second night in a row. Liz Chung Hoon-Palau stepped up with 12 points, and Nancy Hoist also scored 12 while grabbing six rebounds. Junior Jessica Hanato, sophomore Hina Kimitete and freshman Jazzmin Kimitete added eight points each. Hoist and Hanato are also McDonald’s All-America nominees.

Konawaena’s commitment to the transition game is evident in the numbers. Against Kalaheo, the Wildcats amassed 24 assists, 19 steals and 24 turnovers.

Kalaheo, which came out flat in its opening-round game, struggled at the onset of Friday's battle. Konawaena led 21-1 at the end of one quarter.

“We’re uptempo, so we’ll have our share of turnovers,” Wildcats’ head coach Bobbie Awa said as her team returned to Kealakekua late Friday night. “But we don’t want that many.”

Unlike other games in preseason, Konawaena was conservative defensively. “We stayed in halfcourt man and zone. There was no full-court press at all,” Awa said.

Kalaheo, she believes, will peak in time for the post-season. “(Smith) started, but she wasn’t a factor,” Awa said, alluding to the senior forward’s injured foot. “They’re big, but they not in shape right now. We ran them, and we got a lot of transition points.”

Kahuku, Awa added, will offer a different set of problems. “They have a lot of stamina,” she noted.

Kahuku was ahead of Kamehameha-East Hawai’i 4-0 when the Warriors pulled the ball out into a four-corner set. Fans at Afook-Chinen Hilo Civic Auditorium booed the Warriors at first. Kahuku, working on a 1-3-1 zone this spring, gradually extended its defense further out. That allowed the Warriors to drive, draw and dish to the corners.

That allowed Sierra Gacayan and Lisa Yang to get open looks, and their 3-point shooting silenced the boo birds and kept the Warriors close. Kahuku opened a double-digit lead in the third quarter against the Warriors, a team comprised of sophomores and freshmen.

It was a strategy that could be duplicated by other Kahuku foes down the road, as long as the Lady Raiders remain in a zone as they did against the Warriors. By limiting the number of possessions for Kahuku, Kamehameha-East Hawai’i didn’t have to contend with the Lady Raiders’ fullcourt press very often.

Konawaena has no intention of pulling the ball out, but the Wildcats hope they’ve learned a lesson or two since losing to Kahuku two weeks ago, 51-45, at the Punahou Wahine Spring Classic.

“Hopefully, we can take care of the ball tomorrow,” Awa said. “And take higher-percentage shots.”

The Wildcats can also look forward to another 2-hour, 30-minute drive from Kealakekua to Hilo—traffic and weather permitting.

“We were thinking of staying over in Hilo, but we had the first game yesterday,” Awa said of the 3 p.m. tip-off. “So that put us in the 6 o’clock game for Friday. We figured, well, we might as well just drive back. But we ended up staying and watching the late game, anyway.”

Mileage or not, the Civic is primed to be the loudest venue in the state Saturday with the exception of the crowd at the BYU-Hawai’i men’s volleyball match. At least a couple hundred Wildcat fans are expected to make the trek to Hilo, joining the group of Kahuku fans who made the trip to the Big Island.