Pun’s pressure the difference
By Pat Bigold
Star-BulletinHILO -- Ki'i Spencer-Vasconcellos sobbed uncontrollably -- tears of hard-won accomplishment coursing down her cheeks. "I thought we could do it and we knew we could," she said, choking on her words amid a din of joyful screams. Her head was bowed as she struggled to speak, her heart still racing and her breath short.
"There's no one person on this team -- I love them all."
If anyone was ever entitled to a dam-break of emotion after a ballgame, it was Spencer-Vasconcellos.
Despite second-seeded Punahou's 60-37 rout of No. 1-seeded Honokaa in the championship of the First Hawaiian Bank/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Girls' Basketball Tournament Saturday night, she had overcome heavy adversity on the floor.
After what happened to her 48 seconds into the second half, it's a wonder she finished the game on her feet.
Spencer-Vasconcellos had already helped lead the Buffanblu to a 39-21 lead with 14 points, three steals, three blocked shots, three assists and three rebounds. Honokaa, previously unbeaten in 24 games, was being embarrassed in front of a Big Island crowd that jammed the civic center.
Her drives to the hoop were unstoppable and her shots from every conceivable angle were finding the basket on each attempt.
She was one of the main reasons, along with junior center Onaona Miller (15 points in the first half), that the Dragons were frustrated.
They became more physical as the game wore on, because that's what they've been able to do successfully with their considerable size. And Spencer-Vasconcellos was paying for every spectacular finger roll.
On her second basket within a period of 15 seconds in the first minute of the second half, Spencer-Vasconcellos was airborne when she took a left-handed shot off the glass. Before she came down, the right arm of Honokaa star guard Dayna "Sissy" Gambill, the Big Island's best talent, caught her in the mouth.
Falling backwards to the court, Spencer-Vasconcellos hit her head and was knocked unconscious as a stunned civic center crowd rose to its feet to see what had happened.
It was several minutes before Spencer-Vasconcellos sat up with the help of a trainer. It was a little longer before she found her feet and was helped off the floor.
Referee Jill Nunokawa spoke to Gambill but decided against issuing the intentional foul because Gambill insisted she didn't do it on purpose.
"Anybody who knows me knows I'm not that kind of person," said Gambill after the game.
Punahou head coach Shelley Fey didn't expect Spencer-Vasconcellos to play another minute.
"But I said no way I wasn't going to come back -- my team needed me," said Spencer-Vasconcellos.
She finished on her feet and was even more dazzling in her ball control during the final eight minutes than she had been before the knockout blow.
Spencer-Vasconcellos finished with 18 points, six rebounds, five assists, four blocked shots and three steals.
Punahou's full-court pressure defense was stunning, causing 23 turnovers. The Buffanblu converted 12 of them for 26 points. They turned Honokaa's first five turnovers of the game into points.
"That's the way we should play defense," said UH football head coach Fred vonAppen, who sat in the stands for the title game.
The offense, thanks to the consistent penetration of Spencer-Vasconcellos (15.6 ppg tournament average), Harvard-bound Lisa Kowal and the other Buffanblu guards, scored everything inside. They shot 44 percent and went 16 of 18 from the line.
Miller, the former Hilo player who transferred to Punahou last fall, scored 23 points and had 10 rebounds. She averaged 16 points in the tournament.
At the free-throw line, Punahou put on a clinic during the tournament, making 42 of 57.
Star-Bulletin
All-Tournament TeamMVP--Ki'i Spencer Vasconcellos, Punahou. G--Lisa Kowal, Punahou. G--Stephanie Redman, Kalaheo. C--Onaona Miller, Punahou. F--Kim Taylor, Kalaheo. F--Noeau Dougher, Honokaa.
