Boys’ Basketball:
Nishimura’s 20 points lead Moanalua over No. 5 Kaimuki, 59-56
Talkstory central
for the
By Paul Honda
Editor
HondaReport.com
Saturday, January 3, 2004
The Menehune also showed a penchant for some truly bizarre decision-making that
promises to keep the race interesting.
Joseph Nishimura pumped in 20 points as Moanalua rallied
past Kaimuki, 59-56, Saturday night at Moanalua’s gym. The win over Kaimuki, ranked
No. 5 in the HondaReport.com Top Ten, had several implications for a talented Moanalua
team that has been up and down through preseason.
For starters, Moanalua lost three times to Kaimuki last season, including a
triple-overtime defeat in the playoffs. “It feels like a monkey is off our
back,” veteran Moanalua head coach Byron Cheng said. “Thank God we played them
at home. If it had been at Kaimuki, it might’ve been different.”
Kaimuki’s preseason was erratic, perhaps more so than Moanalua’s. The Bulldogs
have had players in and out of the lineup due to various reasons. They suited
up eight Saturday night.
“With just eight guys, you figure we could tire ‘em out, but they always bring
their best,” Cheng said. “Kaimuki will be there at the end. Not to take
anything away from our team, but we’re very fortunate to walk out of the gym
with a win. This win is huge,” he said.
The OIA East figures to be highly competitive again, so winning at home against
the upper-echelon teams is almost mandatory. It was, in other words, a win
Moanalua needed a little more than Kaimuki. It was, however, a rather uneven
performance for the Bulldogs, who are ranked fifth by media and coaches even
after losing at
Loss number one in league play is going to be a forgotten
memory soon for the Bulldogs.
“It’s not gonna bother me,” longtime Kaimuki head coach Stephen Lee said. “Moanalua
is a good team, and we’re just not ready yet. We’ve had so many problems. We
need another week just to work together and gel.”
The Bulldogs nearly had the services of swingman Isaiah Ano, one of the top
defensive players in the state. “He made grades, but there was still paperwork
that hasn’t gone through,” Lee lamented. “He really would’ve helped on the
boards.”
Eric Keys, a 6-foot-5 senior, and 6-6 Marquise Duvall helped Moanalua stave off
the Bulldogs on the glass. Defensively, the unranked Menehune limited Jimmy
Miyasaka to eight points.
Miyasaka, one of the top scorers in the state, never quite got his offense
going and sat for much of the final quarter. “Sometimes that happens,” Lee
said. “Jimmy’ll learn that sometimes someone else will be playing better and
they’ll be on the floor.”
The good news for Kaimuki is that their two big men fared quite well against
the taller towers of Moanalua. Senior Dexter Tautofi scored 15 points,
including 5-of-5 from the free-throw line, and classmate Nick Milan also scored
15. Tautofi was highly effective on the low post, while
Unfortunately, just as he was getting hot, Tautofi didn’t get a touch in the
low post for the rest of the fourth quarter aside from loose ball situations.
In the opening nine minutes, Kaimuki hardly looked like a team struggling with
personnel issues. The Bulldogs stormed to a 13-5 lead as the Menehune struggled
to get their shooting strokes going against a matchup zone. “It was pretty
scary,” Nishimura said. “We were hesitant. We kept our composure. We had to
communicate.”
Moanalua, with a four points by Keys and five more by Nishimura, including a
trey from the left corner, pulled ahead with an 11-2 run. The Menehune led
16-15 with
As with the first half, Kaimuki started the second half nicely. Miyasaka sank
two free throws to help the Bulldogs take a 30-27 lead. However, the Bulldogs
suffered from poor shot selection—Miyasaka missed from 23 feet out, and
Michael Loeschke sparked the run with a block and a layup.
Nishimura connected on two more 3-pointers, including one off the dribble from
the top of the key, as Moanalua took a 40-32 lead with
Tautofi scored on a power move down low for a 3-point play
to start the fourth quarter, and then hustled for a putback to spark a 7-0
Kaimuki run. Miyasaka’s left-handed layup cut the lead to 45-43 with
Moanalua called time out and regrouped. Nishimura drove for another layup to
spark a 6-0 run. Miyasaka and
Gascon, a 5-6 point guard, and Nishimura sank free throws to keep Moanalua
ahead, 57-50, with
Tautofi scored on a pair of foul shots to cut the margin to five. Keys, who sustained an ankle injury in the second quarter, missed on an alley-oop lob. Kaimuki came back down the floor quickly, and Tautofi scored on a left-handed layup to cut the lead to 57-54 with 27 seconds left.
Gascon made a free throw with 19 seconds left to give Moanalua a four-point lead. Kaimuki turned the ball over again, but Keys missed on another layup attempt. Tautofi scored another layup with five seconds left, but Kaimuki was out of time outs.
Moanalua sank a free throw with 1.6 seconds left to seal the
win.
Cheng said he’d cut Keys some slack for missing the layups. “He knows he’s
gotta come through. We should’ve pulled the ball out both times, taken eight or
nine seconds off until they fouled us. We shouldn’t even have made the pass,”
Cheng said. “But I was just proud that he got back in the game. He’s never
going to use the injury as an excuse for missing.”
And now, the Bulldogs go back to work, and Lee is
optimistic. “It’s about heart and going 110 percent,” he said. “That’s my job.
The thing is our guys came back.”
If Miyasaka is playing well alongside Tautofi and
“We knew he could shoot outside, but our focus was on Jimmy,”
Cheng said of
Tautofi, a 6-4 senior, presents new problems if he continues
to play this way. “He gets the ball in the paint, and that’s two points. We had
four inches on him, but he doesn’t play like it,” Cheng added.
The Menehune, known for giving their guards the green light, are beginning to
harness their potential. “Joe had a good game. He gets his shots ‘cause the
guys get him the ball. They may have a look, but they get it to him because
they know he’s a better shooter,” Cheng said. “Sometimes he forces it, but we
work hard on discipline and patience on offense.”
Kaimuki edged Moanalua in the junior varsity game, 44-43.
|
@ Moanalua |
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
4th |
F |
|
Kaimuki |
11 |
15 |
10 |
20 |
56 |
|
Moanalua |
05 |
22 |
18 |
14 |
59 |