BIIF girls basketball: Depleted Wildcats battle through injuries

KAILUA-KONA — Konawaena knew coming into the season that it could not afford any injuries. However, the injury bug has hit the defending state champion Wildcats eight-player roster hard.

It didn’t seem to bother them too much on Thursday night. The Wildcats defeated visiting Kealakehe 50-14 behind 19 points from Mikayla Tablit and 13 from Cherilyn Molina.

The sequence of injuries started with the team’s most valuable and irreplaceable pillar, Washington State committed Chanelle Molina. While playing in the consolation championship game of the National Title IX tournament in Washington D.C. last month, Molina went up for a shot late in the second quarter and came down awkwardly, severely spraining her ankle. The tough Konawaena senior played through the pain in the second half, but the ankle quickly swelled after the game.

Molina came back to the Big Island and has not played in a league game since her return. She was on crutches until recently but is now starting to walk unassisted. A timetable for her return has not yet been set.

“She went and got the ankle checked out and I think she will be alright,” said Konawaena assistant coach Jessica Hanato. “We are waiting for her to come back, but in the meantime we are also preparing in case she cannot come back, so we are a little in limbo there.”

Molina isn’t the only starter to be dealing with an injury. Senior Mercedes “Ihi” Victor is also battling a lower back issue after aggravating a previous injury from the volleyball season. She is considered day-to-day.

While the injuries hit the starting five hard, the team has remained undefeated in the league thanks to the play of Cherilyn Molina and Tablit.

“The girls have really sucked it up,” Hanato said. “Cherilyn and Mikalya have done a great job kind of taking over the one spot.”

While Cherilyn Molina is running the point with Tablit, she is also being relied on to score more while her sister is out of action.

“Chanelle was our top scorer and now I have to score more,” Cherilyn said. “The team has played pretty well, and we just need to stay safe and avoid any more injuries.”

Mahie Kaawa, the team’s sixth player and No. 1 option off the bench at the start of the year, has also been playing well since entering the starting lineup due to the injuries.

“Mahie has really stepped into the starting lineup and is doing great things for us,” Hanato said. “Usually she is the spark coming off the bench but now she is in it and she had a great game recently against Honokaa. We are really excited about what she will contribute for the rest of the season and even into the next year.”

While injuries have plagued the varsity team, they also forced Konawaena to cut the JV program this season.

“If we had kept the JV team, three of our varsity players would have had to play down just to give them enough and we were playing with only five with the injuries,” Hanato said. “It was just not working out so we brought up the girls that were consistent, which will be exciting for them.”

The varsity roster will now consist of 10 players when everyone is back to full strength.

As for practice, the Wildcats have looked to the boys program for help.

“We are luckily that we run at the same time as the boys and (coach) Brandon (Awa), he always lets us run against his JV guys,” Hanato said. “We were very fortunate that our programs are so close, so we have that to use to our advantage.”

As for now, the Wildcats are just hoping to have everyone back for the playoffs.

“If we can get everyone healthy and back before the playoffs that would be ideal but we know that never usually works out,” Hanato said. “Hopefully we can avoid anymore injuries.”