Konawaena’s Na’ea-Kaiya Leleiwi grabbed a loose ball and put up a shot that beat the buzzer, then the Wildcats watched collectively as the ball hit the backboard and rolled around the basket, seemingly in slow motion, and went in.
Of course, it did – most everything Konawaena tried during those raucous eight minutes was good.
Konawaena blitzed Keaau with a 22-point third quarter Thursday quarter, racing into the BIIF Division I boys basketball championship game by pulling away for a 63-53 victory at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.
On Friday night against Waiakea, coach Donny Awa has Konawaena (13-0) playing for a title for a fifth consecutive season, a first for him. The Wildcats’ only loss in the finals during that span came last year against the Warriors.
“We’ve managed to stay good,” he said. “We’ve had some down years. With this young group, they came in as freshman (in 2015) and we were able to win BIIFs, even though I don’t think we were supposed to.”
This group is expected to win, but it didn’t look that way during a sloppy first half as they fell behind 10-2 and had to rally behind the strong play of reserves to take a one-point lead, 25-24 at the half.
There was no halftime tirade from Awa, just a reminder that they were leading despite not having played well.
Yet.
“Our bench held us in the game,” said senior Kamakana Ching, who scored eight of his team-high 13 points in the third quarter. “Our coach told us to go and start playing who we are.”
“We had to warm up again.”
It didn’t take Konawaena long to get hot.
Ching’s layup to open the third was a preview of things to come. The Wildcats clogged passing lanes to force turnovers and got easy baskets, making seven of their first eight shots of the period, which they closed with a 16-0 run.
Junior Hauoli Akai started the spurt with a 3-pointer and finished with 12 points, and Austin Ewing added seven.
The one constant all game long for Konawaena was that it crashed the glass for a large rebounding advantage.
“It just started to click,” Ching said. “I just started playing like a big man.”
Villiami Kaea came off the bench and loomed large as well, especially in the first half as Konawaena struggled with 32 percent shooting and Ching was saddled with two fouls. Kaea finished with 11 points, including a three-point play that gave the Wildcats their first lead late in the second quarter.
All told, Konawaena went on a 33-6 surge to take its largest lead, 53-28, early in the fourth quarter.
“He’s had some good practices, but he hasn’t showed it in games,” Awa said. “This is probably the best game he’s had.”
Junior Patrick Mears made three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and finished with 25 points as the Cougars hung in.
Back in the postseason for the first time since 2009, Keaau’s ends a promising season 6-5. Along with Mears, Rico Handy (12 points), another junior, also is slated to return for the Keaau next season. Senior Reynaldo Arcellana fininshed his career with a six-point effort.
Keaau 12 12 4 25 –53
Konawaena 10 15 22 16–63
