Waiakea’s basketball game plan worked like a charm: pack the defense in, run the floor in transition, and count on Calvin Mattos, whose greatest skill is making his teammates better. ADVERTISING Waiakea’s basketball game plan worked like a charm: pack
Waiakea’s basketball game plan worked like a charm: pack the defense in, run the floor in transition, and count on Calvin Mattos, whose greatest skill is making his teammates better.
The No. 1 seed Warriors played superb team ball and thumped No. 2 Konawaena 60-40 in the BIIF Division I championship on Saturday night, capturing their first league title since 2009.
The Warriors (14-0) and Wildcats (12-2), whose two losses are to Waiakea, have berths to the HHSAA state tournament, which will be held Feb. 17-20 on Oahu.
Waiakea denied Kona a BIIF title fourpeat, but it required a ton of patience over four long years.
As Mattos, a junior guard, and his teammates know the best rewards are earned, not given, and sometimes a championship trophy is there for the taking until it disappears into the hands of someone else.
Last season, Waiakea lost to Kona in the BIIF semifinals 54-48 and sat at home from states. In Mattos’ freshman year in 2014, the Wildcats beat the Warriors 57-54 for the title. In 2013, Konawaena edged them 59-58 in the BIIF semis.
“The BIIF title is big for our program,” Waiakea coach Paul Lee said. “The last couple of years there have been close games, but we’ve been knocked out by Kona. We’ve gone to states before but as the second-place team.”
Mattos scored 24 points, Louie Ondo and Kahinu Alapai eight each, Treyson Ishimoto seven, and Prince Shields and Cameron Carvalho-Chinen added six and five points, respectively, off the bench for the Warriors, who shot 49 percent (22 of 45) from the field and made 12 of 17 free throws.
“As everybody knows, Calvin is the heartbeat of our team. He really makes everyone on our team better,” Lee said. “Last year, he would try to take over, but this year he lets the game come to him. You can see the confidence everybody has when he’s on the court.
“He’ll give the ball and keep his teammates involved, and he’ll give it at the right spot and right time to keep them confident. He’s a good leader. If he has a bad play, he’ll move on. He keeps the team together. The team is really close, and that’s been a big difference for us this year.”
Hauoli Akau scored 18 points, Kaanoi Kelekolio-Rivera added seven off the bench, and Austin Ewing had five points for the Wildcats, who shot 24 percent (12 of 50) from the floor and made just 12 of 28 free throws.
The ’Cats didn’t look like themselves and played nothing like a three-time champion. Their ball movement was stagnant, and they didn’t hustle back on transition defense. It was a pair of thorns in their shoes all game long.
Coach Donny Awa’s Wildcats have the best high-low post passing in the league, except for his wife Bobbie Awa’s Konawaena girls team, the two-time Division I state champion. That’s how the two squads make scoring look so easy in halfcourt sets, where dribble-penetration is an equally effective weapon.
“We got caught playing hero ball, everyone trying to win the game by themselves,” he said. “We didn’t have four or five passes before we took a shot. We didn’t have intensity or focus on defense. That’s our strength, and then we let the offense come.”
It’s also no contest that Waiakea has the best transition game — rebounding a miss, passing to the outlet floor runner, and scoring a layup. They’ve got three of the league’s fastest layup artists in Noah Ferreira, who was plagued by foul trouble, Ondo and Mattos. (There’s no doubt that the quickest dribbler is St. Joseph’s Manato Fukuda, who’s an absolute blur with the ball.)
The Warriors sank five layups in transition, and that’s only off misses, not counting layups off turnovers or on rim attacks. The Wildcats were shut out in transition layups off misses. That’s an easy 10-0 point advantage and a major Cardinal sin.
“That’s a point of concern,” Awa said about his team’s transition defense. “We haven’t seen a team run on us like Waiakea. My philosophy is if you’re not crashing the boards, you have to get back on defense.
“I thought we got past these mistakes. It’s like we’re back to the beginning of the year. It’s frustrating because we’re going to states, and I’m not sure which team will show up.”
There’s nothing that bugs coaches more than giving up easy points, such as transition layups and putbacks. One is all about hustle, and the latter is all about attention to detail. The Wildcats were not good at both against the Warriors, who caught fire in the second quarter.
That’s when they shot 6 of 11 from the field, got scoring balance from all over the place and outscored Kona 19-10 to take a 25-19 lead into halftime. Ishimoto had two baskets while Mattos, Alapai and Carvalho-Chinen had one each.
The Wildcats, who played in a constant rush, had ball-control issues and committed 17 turnovers, which helped Waiakea outscore them 7-4 off giveaways. The Warriors had 14 turnovers but held the composure edge.
A three-point margin may not seem like a big deal, but throw that in with the transition layups, and we’re talking a 13-0 point advantage. That’s how the term Digging yourself into a hole was invented.
The Wildcats didn’t play strategic basketball, either.
Mattos is a big-time clutch free throw shooter. His smooth left-handed stroke sank 6 of 7 free throws. He’s the one guy the Wildcats shouldn’t foul, but he shot the most free throws for Waiakea.
In the first half, Mattos put on a scoring display with 14 points and handed Waiakea a 25-19 lead to take into halftime, as well as a large slice of momentum.
He knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and closed the second quarter with his patented right-handed floater with 8.3 seconds remaining.
When the championship was over, Mattos had a huge smile. The Warriors’ last BIIF title came in 2009 when his brother Chris Mattos was a junior. It was also Lee’s first year at Waiakea.
“This means a lot to me. This means the world because I’ve been waiting my whole high school career, and now I’ve got one,” Mattos said. “We worked hard for this all summer. I’m happy we won it. Now, we have to go to states and represent.”
Konawaena 9 10 10 11 — 40
Waiakea 6 19 16 19 — 60
