BIIF basketball: Arima, Maltezo share top honor in Division II

BIIF Division II girls basketball of late has been all about Honokaa and Kamehameha.

The Dragons had a multitude of attention-grabbers in 2015. Some games it was point guard Kizzah Maltezo or shooting guard Shayla Ignacio, and oftentimes it was Eliyah Fernandez who shined inside.

“On any given day, anybody could stand out,” coach Daphne Honma said. “It wasn’t just one player.”

The Dragons used that depth to repeat as BIIF and HHSAA champions.

At Kamehameha, No. 1 wasn’t so hard to pinpoint. That would be sweet-shooting senior Riana Arima, a four-year contributor at guard who had to take on a bigger role to lead the Warriors back to the BIIF final and a third-place finish at states.

“It was definitely more important for me to score,” Arima said, “and I looked for my shot more than ever before.”

So, if you’re tasked with choosing the BIIF Player of the Year, do you try to decipher the best player on the best team, or do you select the high-scoring Arima? League coaches essentially split the difference in their vote, honoring Maltezo and Arima.

“I had a huge smile when I found out,” Maltezo said. “Like a kid in a candy store.”

Of course, the junior also could have said the same about her experience at the state tournament.

“It was really hard to sit on the sidelines the season before,” she said.

Asked if she was surprised that Maltezo was selected instead of Fernandez, Honma said yes and no.

“I think it depends on what game the coaches saw,” she said.

But one thing is for sure – no one came further than Maltezo, who’s first two seasons at Honokaa were marred by injuries. It was bad enough that a nagging arm injury cost her part of her freshman season. She was back by the end of the season and scored 11 points as the Dragons lost to the Warriors in the HHSAA final. (Arima had seven as Casey Poe powered Kamehameha, then a six-time defending BIIF champion, to a state repeat of its own).

Maltezo was ready to guide transfer-infused Honokaa as a sophomore, but she suffered a season-ending knee injury early in the BIIF season and ended up watching the Dragons win their first state title – by beating the Warriors – in street clothes.

“That made me just want to come back all the more,” she said.

That she was able to do so and be recognized over Fernandez and alongside Arima was a testament to her talent, Honma said.

“For us it was easy,” said Honma, voted Coach of he Year. “Kizzah gave us another skilled guard.

“But I think it was more important for her just to be able to compete.”

Arima might not have overcome as much adversity as Maltezo, but she did face burdens. Arima didn’t just show up in the gym as a freshman and start shooting. No, she showed up at the gym as a 4-year-old and started shooting with her father, Garrett.

Garrett Arima coached his daughter all the way up through her junior season before stepping down, and Weston Willard coached the Warriors back to states last season.

“I knew it was going to be difficult, but my teammates helped me through it,” she said.

Asked to pick the favorite game of her career, Arima points to the Warriors’ state run her senior year. That’s when she perhaps most had to bear the burden of being Kamehameha’s go-to player with Poe graduated. Arima scored 31 points on 12-of-16 shooting in a first-round victory against Damien and averaged 19.5 points in four games.

She’ll take her shooting touch to Pacific, a Division III school in Forest Grove, Ore, that is offering an academic scholarship that will cover approximately 75 percent of her college costs. Arima plans to study medical technology with an eye on becoming an x-ray technician.

“I liked that there are a lot of local kids there and I had good (interaction) with the coaches.” she said.

Maltezo and Arima were joined on the all-BIIF team by Fernandez, Ignacio and Warriors senior Makamae Gabriel. After all, it’s all about Honokaa and Kamehameha in Division II.