West Hawaii Today’s Joe Ferraro contributed to this report.
BY EDWARD JACKSON | STEPHENS MEDIA
HONOLULU — Hawaii Prep started fine and finished strong. It’s the second quarter that got away from Ka Makani at the Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division II boys basketball tournament.
Junior guard AJ Ortaleza scored 12 points, as McKinley forged ahead Friday night with a big second quarter and held on to beat HPA 40-38 in the semifinals at Farrington High School.
“We wanted to come out with intensity and set our tone on the defensive end,” Hawaii Prep coach Dave Huntington said. “But during that second quarter we got sloppy on defense and let McKinley get past us on drives to the basket.”
The Tigers (13-6) will try for their second state championship today against Oahu Interscholastic Association rival and top seed Kalaheo (17-2) at 5 p.m. at Neal Blaisdell Center.
Senior guard Alex Ironside added nine points for McKinley, which last won a state title in 2007. With the score tied at 15 in the second quarter, the Tigers went on a 10-2 run and never trailed again.
Guard Dakota Berman made three 3-pointers and led BIIF champion Hawaii Prep (8-6) with 19 points.
The senior’s basket with 9 seconds left trimmed the Tigers’ lead to two, but Ka Makani ran out of time.
“Certainly I’m disappointed with the loss,” said Berman, who scored 43 points in two games. “We played strong in the first quarter, then we fell behind by eight in that second quarter and had a hard time catching up.
“We knew going into the final quarter that we needed to step up our defense. We were able to get the margin down, but if we could have had 15 more seconds I think we could have tied the game.”
HPA lost despite enjoying a decided advantage at the free-throw line.
Berman was 6-of-6 to lead HPA, which made 15 of 20 as a team. McKinley was just 1-of-8.
Junior Jovan Crnic scored eight points on 8-of-10 shooting from the line, and senior forward Tyler Van Kirk added seven.
Playing at its first state tournament, HPA can still finish on a winning note today at 11 a.m. at the Neal Blaisdell Center, when it faces Seabury Hall (7-1), the Maui Interscholastic League champion, in the third-place game.
“We had a great season,” Huntington said. “I knew deep down that our kids would mount a challenge at the end.
“They didn’t just hand McKinley the victory.”
In the other semifinal, Kalaheo beat Seabury Hall 38-36.
McKinley 9 16 11 4 — 40
Hawaii Prep 11 6 11 10 — 38
— Saint Francis 72, Kohala 67: At Kaimuki High, Mathew Nuumanaia had 24 points and 12 rebounds, and Austin Ursua scored 12 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter for Interscholastic League of Honolulu champion Saint Francis, which ended Big Island Interscholastic Federation runner-up Kohala’s season.
Keoni Tom-Millare added 17 points for Saint Francis (12-2), which will play ILH runner-up Hanalani (13-3) in today’s 9 a.m. fifth-place game at Neal Blaisdell Center.
The Cowboys (8-7), who trailed by 15 late in the first half, tied it at 56-56 after a free throw by Andrew Trump with 4:19 remaining in the game.
Ursua scored 10 of the Saints’ final 14 points over the final 4:03.
The Saints went on a 10-2 run to end the first period and take an 18-9 lead. Saint Francis’ largest lead was 30-15 after a 3-pointer by Shabir Lynton with 2:30 left before halftime.
Senior Christopher Roxburgh scored a game-high 27 points for Kohala, which went 0-2 at the state tournament. Junior Christian Salis-Kapeliela added 13 points.
Saint Francis 18 15 19 20 — 72
Kohala 9 11 22 25 — 67
West Hawaii Today’s Joe Ferraro contributed to this report.