By Paul Honda
paul@hondareport.com
Saturday, Feb. 17, 2006

The Bulldogs of Kaimuki, as coach Kelly Grant says, love the limelight.

He's right. After a middling 7-5 regular season, Kaimuki rolled through the playoffs and won all three of its games by double-digit margins. Even Kalaheo, a team that swept the 'Dogs, succumbed last night, 56-45.

It was a matter of minimizing weakness as best as possible for both teams. Kaimuki's diamond-and-one defense put shackles on Kalaheo's sharpshooter, Cheynne Lishman (seven points). The rest of the Mustangs couldn't make up the difference despite wide-open shots from the perimeter.

Kaimuki's young bench wasn't spectacular, but all Grant needed was steady, heady play. They were enough to complement Beau Albreachtson, Keone Reyes and Daniel Colon, arguably the best trio combination in the state.

Can Kaimuki win it all? They made it to the state final a year ago. They return their nucleus, and if their reserves continue to play well, anything's possible.

In the OIA White, Aiea played its high-octane game on both ends of the floor and proved to be McKinley's nemesis again. Aiea's 68-59 win gave the school its first OIA boys basketball title.

Here's the rest of the story, the parts that didn't make it on paper due to space limitations.

> A 7-2 run brought the Tigers within 42-36 after Lessary swished a pull-up jumper. With 3 minutes left in the third quarter, McKinley was in the bonus.
Woods returned late in the third quarter and Liilii followed at the start of the fourth. After Woods sank a 3-pointer, Aiea led 55-45 with more than 7 minutes left in the game.

Sione, playing on an injured ankle, hustled to tip in a miss, and Lee scored back-to-back buckets in traffic to bring the Tigers within 55-51 with 6:22 remaining.

Chung swished his third 3-pointer of the second half to help Aiea open a nine-point lead. McKinley had one last run, pulling within 64-59 after Sione hustled for a follow shot with 1:03 to go, but that was the last of McKinley's points.

Chung hit two free throws with 47 seconds left, and Woods added two more with 17 seconds left to put the game out of reach.

"Aiea is just a matchup problem for us," Morikuni said. "Maybe next time we'll play them, we'll find a way to get out to the 3s."

Aiea finished 7-for-15 from the 3-point arc.

In the opening half, McKinley struggled against Aiea's relentless fullcourt man-to-man defense and shot only 4-for-13 from the foul line. With Liilii, then Woods, on the bench with foul trouble, McKinley chipped away at the lead.

The Tigers switched out of a 2-3 matchup zone to a 1-2-2, with forward Tilton Kaluna on top.

"We just had to make our shots and get the ball to Josh," Tau said. "We needed to utilize the middle."

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