High Five

Wildcats claim fifth state championship in nine years

BY KIM BAXTER | SPECIAL TO WEST HAWAII TODAY

HONOLULU — The Konawaena girls basketball team wears warmup shirts that say “No Excuses” on the back.

Against second-seeded Iolani in the Division I Hawaiian Airlines/HHSAA Girls Basketball state championship game Friday, the Wildcats had to rely on a star point guard with a gimpy left ankle. No excuses.

The Wildcats clanked their first 10 3-pointers, turned the ball over 11 times in the first 15 minutes and found themselves in an 11-point hole just before halftime. No excuses.

Instead, top-seeded Konawaena dug deep and powered its way to a 56-45 victory over Iolani at Neal Blaisdell Center, sealing its second straight state title and earning its place amongst the greatest programs in the history of Hawaii basketball.

“If Kona isn’t a dynasty, I don’t know what a dynasty is,” said coach Bobbie Awa with a big smile.

The numbers support her claim.

c Konawaena won its third title in five years and its fifth title in nine years, all under Awa, who tied Kamehameha-Oahu’s Al Apo for the most state titles ever. Five championships in nine years is as good of a run as any other school in the state.

c Konawaena’s fifth title places it behind Punahou and Kamehameha-Oahu for the most titles by a single program.

c Konawaena, which was ranked as high as 13th in USA Today’s Top 25 national poll this season, finished the last four years with a 110-8 record, including a 48-0 dominance against fellow Big Island Interscholastic Federation foes.

c Senior stars Lia Galdeira (a game-high 21 points, eight rebounds and five steals) and Dawnyelle Awa (10 of her 12 points and five of her six assists came in the second half) have played in the state championship game all four years in high school. The Washington State-bound duo won the crown in 2009, 2011 and 2012, with their lone loss to Lahainaluna in 2010.

“They put our program on the map,” Awa said of Galdeira and her daughter Dawnyelle. “I’m not just talking about on the island or in the state. I’m talking about on the map. What they did for our program is going to carry on. I’m proud of them. It’s just amazing.”

And yet when the Wildcats (27-3 overall) finally secured their hard-fought victory, which included a 13-5 run to end the game, Galdeira and Awa simply smiled. They didn’t jump up and down. They didn’t scream and dive onto the court. They smiled and sauntered toward their bench.

“I think there was a lot of pressure on the girls because they knew how much they wanted it,” Bobbie Awa said. “We let one slip one away, and they did not want another one to slip away again.”

It looked for a long while that Iolani (13-2) was going to play spoiler in the championship game, a match that everyone had presumed would be a mere formality to Konawaena’s coronation. Even Raiders coach Eddie Maruyama said on Thursday that he hoped to just give Konawaena “a good game.”

But the Raiders’ full-court press in the second quarter flummoxed the Wildcats, who committed seven second-quarter turnovers, many of them leading to Iolani fast-break points. It was a maddening stretch in which Konawaena failed to make a basket for nearly seven minutes as Iolani pushed ahead to a daunting 26-15 lead.

“The game wasn’t over,” Galdeira said. “We still had a lot of time. It shouldn’t have been like that in the first place, but we just came back. It was all mental.”

Konawaena got a big boost in the final 75 seconds of the half as a 6-0 run, including a buzzer-beater by Hoku Liftee, gave the Wildcats some much-needed momentum going into the locker room.

In the third quarter, they tried to surge ahead, but some timely Iolani baskets held them off until Galdeira’s smooth turnaround jumper followed by a layup in traffic with less than three minutes remaining in the period gave them the lead for good.

But when BYU-bound Kylie Maeda hit her fourth 3-pointer of the game to narrow Konawaena’s lead to 43-40 with less than four minutes in the game, the Wildcats had to dig deep one final time. Makayla Awa, Dawnyelle Awa, Liftee and Courtney Kaupu made 9 of 10 free throws down the stretch, and Konawaena could celebrate yet another title.

It was an impressive comeback and late-game grit that showcased the team’s championship mettle.

“Lots of heart,” said Kaupu, who scored in double-figures in all three state tournament games. “Lots of pressure. So much yelling, running, sweating, tears. But it’s all worth it.”

No excuses.

Iolani 13 13 6 13 — 45

Konawaena 10 11 15 20 — 56