Prep Beat

Monday, February 23, 1998

State title for
Iolani’s iron men

Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

They were five marathon men.

Forwards Shawn Christensen, Brad and Cord Anderson and guards Kirk Uejio and Doug Jackson seldom sat down during the prep basketball season that concluded Saturday night.

And that, they say, is the main reason why they were able to pull out a 62-59 state title game victory in double overtime against a deep and richly talented Kalaheo High team at the Blaisdell Arena.

When Dr. Mark Mugiishi, Iolani's head coach, decided that his starters would have to bear the burden throughout the 1997-98 season, conditioning coach Todd Allen was given a challenge: Make the Raiders' starters the best-conditioned five in the state.

''We conditioned six days a week from the start of preseason," said Allen, a man some players have called ''the team's real MVP."

Allen, who recently earned his masters degree in political science from the University of Hawaii, will move to Michigan next week, hoping to begin a career in criminology.

His program, which had its beginnings during summer basketball, obviously worked.

The Raiders stumbled only once -- to St. Louis -- through the 12-game Interscholastic League of Honolulu schedule. In 31 games from the start of preseason, they lost only five times. Two of those were to nationally ranked teams in the Iolani Classic.

With a lack of depth, the team could not afford foul trouble for any of its starters. But Iolani survived that problem twice in the Hawaiian Airlines/Hawaii High School Athletic Association tournament. On Friday night against Maui, all-state point guard Kirk Uejio picked up two quick fouls in the first quarter. On Saturday, Iolani's biggest starter, 6-foot-7, Christensen, had four fouls halfway through the third quarter.

But in both cases, the remaining starters seemed to sprout wings until the endangered player returned. And neither Uejio nor Christensen sat very long before getting back in the game.

When Uejio came back on Friday, it was the second quarter and the Raiders outscored the Sabers, 17-9, to take a 28-19 lead.

When Christensen sat down Saturday in the third quarter, his teammates didn't fold. Instead, they swapped the lead three times until he returned with seven minutes left in regulation and Iolani trailing, 37-35.

The first thing Uejio did when Christensen returned to the floor was hit a 3-pointer, falling on his behind as though he had just fired a broadside from a cannon aboard Old Ironsides.

The one time it appear that Iolani's legs might finally be fading was when Kalaheo went on a 6-0 midway through the fourth quarter, taking a 45-40 lead on a slam dunk by 6-7 sophomore Julian Sensley.

But Jackson and Christensen hit consecutive baskets to make it 45-44 before Sensley executed a brilliant back-door play to give the Mustangs back the lead.

Uejio, the always-frowning 5-9 dynamo, finished with a game-high 20 points. He showed remarkable poise in the 31st minute of his time on the court to pull the trigger on a 3-point goal that forced the first four-minute overtime.

And if anyone wondered about how well Iolani would handle the extra minutes, that was answered when Jackson combined on an alley-oop slam by Cord Anderson to open the period.

Charles Harris and Ryan Hogue scored for Kalaheo after that but Cord Anderson forced the second overtime on a tough turnaround under pressure.

Christensen played all of the first overtime as well as the remainder of the game, contributing a pair of critical defensive rebounds and two free throws that gave Iolani a 58-53 lead with 39 seconds left.

Meanwhile, Uejio put on a display of ball control and maneuverability that defied logic for a player who hadn't missed a second of play. Dissecting the Kalaheo press, he went to the line four times and converted 6 of 7 attempts. He made 12 of 14 in the game.

''Kalaheo is a great team and a big team, and we're not used to playing that physical a team," Uejio said.

Asked where he will go to school, Uejio, an honors student, said he has been accepted at Clairemont Mckenna College in California.

''It's a Division III school -- Division I is too serious for me. I want to have fun."

Kalaheo 	13 	13 	8 	13 	4 	8 -- 59
Iolani 	16 	11 	6 	14 	4 	11 -- 62

Kalaheo: Kip Lutu 6, Ryan Hogue 8, Julian Sensley 12, David Abbott 8, Levon Freeman 7, Kaleo Morton 0, Charles Harris 15, Shawn Withy-Allen 0, Kaimana Freitas 3, Josh Rust 0. Iolani: Brad Anderson 7, Cord Anderson 14, Shawn Christensen 9, Kirk Uejio 20, Doug Jackson 12, Travis McGaughy 0, Michael Aeto 0.