HILO – St. Joseph coach Mike Scanlan sat on the bench, his emotions overflowing after his team’s upset win in an all-time postseason classic.
Manato Fukuda sank a layup at the buzzer as the No. 3 seed Cardinals edged No. 2 Hawaii Prep 42-41 in the BIIF Division II boys basketball semifinals on Friday, earning their first HHSAA state berth since 2011.
In the other semifinal, Honokaa defeated defending BIIF champion Pahoa 65-43.
The Cardinals (7-6) and No. 1 seed Dragons (9-4) will play for the BIIF championship at 6 p.m. Saturday. Both have berths to the state tournament, which will be held Feb. 18-20 on Oahu.
Honokaa last won a BIIF title in 2001 while St. Joe’s last was in 2010.
Back in 2012, HPA prevailed over St. Joe 43-42 in the BIIF semifinals, eventually capturing its first league title while stopping the Cards’ two-year appearance run at states.
But that wasn’t why Scanlan was so emotional.
He remembers when the great St. Joe senior class of Sebi Ohara-Saft, Thomas Fairman, Isaac Pacheco, Cody Andrade, and Christian Kaui graduated in 2012 that the Cardinals went winless the next two years.
Last season, the Cardinals finished with a 4-7 record and lost to Honokaa in a play-in game for the BIIF four-team tournament. (Maybe there’s an revenge encore for St. Joe.)
“We didn’t show up last year. This time, we did,” he said.
His dad Harry Scanlan-Leite, the former St. Joe coach, passed away in 2011.
In old-fashioned Big Island style, the Cardinals take care of their own. About a dozen supporters came over and congratulated Scanlan, who also broke down when his daughter Sierra was crying for joy and hugged him.
“Those were a lot of supporters from my dad’s days,” Scanlan said. “It just took so much work. We weren’t even sure we were going to have a team two or three years ago. The kids worked so hard during the offseason, especially the seniors (Cole deSilva and Kaena Naho’opi’i).”
Fukuda scored 14 points, deSilva 12, Ruka Suda eight, Jakob Au six and Naho’opi’i two for the Cardinals, who shot 38 percent (15 of 40) from the field and made 6 of 9 free throws, all in the second half.
Jonas Skupeika scored 23 points, Matija Vitorovic 16 and Michael Hanano two to account for all the points for HPA (7-6), which converted 41 percent (15 of 37) from the floor and made 5 of 11 free throws.
It was the final game for Ka Makani senior starter Skupeika, who, in the fourth quarter, scored seven points on three consecutive dazzling plays.
The 6-foot-2 guard, from Lithuania, dropped a layup, knocked down a 3-pointer, then put in a reverse layup. That turned a 34-30 deficit into a 37-34 HPA lead.
But Au swished a 3-pointer, the last of St. Joe’s six treys, for a 37-37 tie with 3:01 remaining.
To rewind a bit, it was a 3-point shooting gallery in the first half, 23-21, HPA ahead. St. Joseph buried five 3-pointers while HPA nailed four.
Skupeika finished with four 3-balls while Au, deSilva and Fukuda each sank two 3-pointers each.
Then Skupeika had a brilliant behind-the-back dribble and left-handed layup (he’s right-handed) to give HPA a 40-37 advantage with 1:30 remaining, and later hit one of two free throws for a 41-40 lead with 9.5 seconds left.
Suda grabbed the missed free throw, and the Cardinals called timeout with five seconds left after they got past halfcourt.
Fukuda inbounded the ball, took a handoff and soared to the rim. He’s a slightly built 5-6 junior but found a seam and dropped in his game-winner as the buzzer sounded.
After the hand shakes with the stunned Ka Makani, Scanlan grabbed a chair and sat down. Then he cried tears of joy, just like his daughter Sierra, thinking all the time about his dad, smiling from up above.
Honokaa 65
Pahoa 43
Probably, the MVPs of the foul-filled battle between No. 1 seed Honokaa and No. 4 Pahoa were the referees: Mason Souza, Anthony Carvalho and Jose Irizarry in a game that set several records — none good.
There was a BIIF postseason record eight players, including only three from Honokaa, who fouled out.
The semifinal also ended with 44 seconds left after Honokaa’s Sheltyn Carvalho sank a layup and a Dagger defender was called for an intentional foul — the first and only one of the game.
Another BIIF tournament record was the free throws. Honokaa made 28 of 54 from the line while Pahoa went 21 of 45.
Jonathan Charbonneau scored 15 points, Kelvin Falk 10 off the bench and Kamuela Spencer-Herring added eight points to lead the Dragons, who shot 55 percent (16 of 29) from the field.
“I was happy to see Jonathan have a good game. He’s one of the island’s best players,” Honokaa coach Jayme Carvalho said. “He’s so slippery. He can take over the game any time. But sometimes he needs to be greedy and make shots to help the team.”
Vijay Julian scored 12 points, Joel Rosario Jr. 11, Kili Oliveira nine and Keinan Agonias six points to lead the Daggers, who converted 40 percent (10 of 25) from the floor.
The season is over for the defending BIIF champion Daggers (5-8), who lose senior starters Agonias, Oliveira, and Rosario.
There were no physical confrontations, mostly because the referees kept a tight lid on things, putting out sparks of aggression before they turned into brush fires.
Honokaa led 27-17 at halftime in what turned into a free-throw shooting contest for the first 16 minutes.
The Dragons made 11 of 19 from the line while the Daggers sank only 5 of 17 free throws. That was small potatoes compared to the second half.
What hurt Pahoa more was top players Oliveira and Agonias each picking up their third foul in the second quarter.
Honokaa’s ball pressure was also a nightmare for the Daggers, who had 11 turnovers and were outscored off giveaways 10-2 in the first half. Pahoa finished with 20 turnovers, five more than the Dragons.
In the second period, the Dragons went on a 10-0 scoring spree to increase their cushion to 26-13 with 1:40 remaining. They sank 5 of 8 free throws during that spurt tagging fouls and hitting the depth-challenged Daggers where it hurts most.
Charbonneau led Honokaa with nine points in the first half, scoring from the paint and going 5 of 8 from the line.
In the third quarter, Honokaa produced another 10-0 scoring run, including consecutive 3-pointers by Falk, that pushed the lead to 40-20, the largest of the game.
However, in thew fourth quarter the Daggers cut the lead to 47-36 with 4:41 remaining, after Rosario swished a pair of free throws.
“We’re making fewer mental mistakes, but I’d still like to see us play four quarters of consistent basketball,” Carvalho said. “We’ve got to make our free throws and layups. They came back on us because they started to hit their free throws. It’s simple basketball — hit free throws, layups and block out.”
Despite the Honokaa coach’s concern, his team still scored a bunch of points in transition, the favorite play for his athletic Dragons, and followed the team’s motto: Get It Done.
