BY JOE FERRARO | WEST HAWAII TODAY ADVERTISING KEALAKEKUA — Honokaa coach James Lukzen offered a short-and-sweet description of Konawaena’s girls basketball team Tuesday at Onizuka Gymnasium: long and relentless. The Wildcats displayed those strengths prominently against the Dragons, forcing
BY JOE FERRARO | WEST HAWAII TODAY
KEALAKEKUA — Honokaa coach James Lukzen offered a short-and-sweet description of Konawaena’s girls basketball team Tuesday at Onizuka Gymnasium: long and relentless.
The Wildcats displayed those strengths prominently against the Dragons, forcing 36 turnovers and scoring 28 fast-break points to beat Honokaa 58-23 in a Big Island Interscholastic Federation contest.
Konawaena senior guard Lia Galdeira scored 10 of her team-high 15 points in transition. Junior forward Courtney Kaupu added 13 points, and senior guard Dawnyelle Awa chipped in nine.
The Wildcats (3-0) came into the game having scored more than 100 points in each of their first two victories. Kaupu said Konawaena’s coaching staff stressed to the team that the Dragons (2-1) would present the stiffest challenge from West Hawaii.
“We were trapping and working on our rotation,” Kaupu said. “We were working on that all practice yesterday.”
Konawaena’s traps at halfcourt and in the corners gave Honokaa fits all day. Trying to pass through the traps, Dragon ball-handlers couldn’t penetrate the long arms of Awa and Galdeira, who either deflected the passes or picked them clean and raced toward the other end of the court.
The constant pressure made getting off a shot a difficult task for the Dragons. In the first half, Honokaa committed 26 of its turnovers and attempted just eight shots (4-of-8), while Konawaena had 40.
Sophomore guard Shemika Frazier led Honokaa with seven points, and Chong had five.
“We’re going to have to work on our passing,” Lukzen said.
After Honokaa’s Precious Chong made a layup with 5 minutes, 46 seconds left in the first quarter, the Wildcats closed the period on a 13-0 run to take a 20-4 advantage.
Even though Konawaena’s transition offense produced high-percentage shots, Wildcats assistant coach Shane Heinecke said his team missed too many of them, counting 14 layups that didn’t fall.
Many of those layups happened in the first half, when Konawaena shot just 38 percent. The Wildcats, who emptied their bench late in the third quarter, finished the game at 44 percent (25-of-57).
“We’ve been having a problem with missing layups, and we missed our fair share tonight,” Heinecke said. “Those are the kind of things we have to focus on.
“I don’t know what it was, but we couldn’t hit a layup.”
In the JV game, Honokaa defeated Konawaena 55-35. Sophomore Wynnie Vaoga scored a game-high 16 points, while freshmen Chasity Mickel and Halana Bertelmann-Makanani added 14 and 11, respectively.
Sophomore Zoe Adcal led the Wildcats with 13 points, and freshman Mikela Mercier added 10.
Honokaa 4 5 5 9 — 23
Konawaena 20 18 12 8 — 58
— Kealakehe 51, Laupahoehoe 30: The visiting Waveriders grabbed their first win of the season behind Anna de Sagun’s 14 points to improve to 1-2.
Vanistie Batin led Laupahoehoe (0-3) with 17 points. She hit five 3-pointers.
Kealakehe 13 12 9 17 — 51
Laupahoehoe 12 3 10 5 — 30
— Hawaii Prep 47, Kohala 38: Leahi Lindsey led Hawaii Prep with 18 points.
Nani Lum and Chancis Fernandez added 11 each for homestanding Ka Makani (2-1).
Kristine Antonio led Kohala (1-2) with 15 points.
HPA won the junior varsity game 44-24. Tiana Reynolds led HPA with 18 points, and Ula Brostek added 10.
Eloisa Viernes-Obero led Kohala with 10 points.
Kohala 9 16 1 12 — 38
Hawaii Prep 11 17 11 8 — 47
— Waiakea 38, Kamehameha-Hawaii 27: Senior Ciera Pacheco scored 15 points, most on weaving layups, and Daven Namohala-Roloos added eight as Waiakea won on the road behind a stifling defense.
Sefulu Faavae added six, and Alyssa Ferreira scored five for the Division I Warriors (3-0), who worked hard for good looks to finish with 46 percent (17 of 37) shooting.
Casey Poe finished with 11 points,Keana Kaohimaunu had five and Chelsea Poe and Riana Arima added four each to lead the Division II Warriors (2-1).
Waiakea 8 8 11 11 — 38
Kamehameha 0 14 1 12 — 27
— Hilo 47, Keaau 26: At Keaau, Chaley Cabalis scored 19 points and Sidney Yokota had 11 to lead the Division I Vikings (1-2).
Randi Estrada scored 13 points to lead the Division I Cougars (1-2).
Hilo won the JV game 51-11.
Hilo 16 14 11 6 — 47
Keaau 7 3 7 9 — 26
— Ka’u at Pahoa: Results from Tuesday’s game were not available at press time.
Boys
— Kealakehe 59, Laupahoehoe 19: Psalm Wooching led visiting Kealakehe to its first win with 12 points.
Jacob Ontiveros added 10 for the Waveriders (1-2).
Lexton Silva led Laupahoehoe (0-3) with seven points.
Kealakehe 16 20 14 9 — 59
Laupahoehoe 4 6 3 6 — 19
Stephens Media’s Kevin Jakahi and West Hawaii Today’s Micah Lewter contributed to this report.
jferraro@westhawaiitoday.com
