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Thursday, February 24, 2000
Top seeds
win with style
No. 1 Hilo leads the winners into
By Dave Reardon
today's semifinals of the Boys' State
Basketball Championships
Star-BulletinStyle is everything at tonight's semifinals of the Hawaiian Airlines Boys' State Basketball Championships.
No, not Hilo guard Jason Mandaquit's bleached-gold 'do, nor the headbands on the noggins of Roosevelt's Keola Steitzel and Maulia LaBarre.
We're talking style as in tempo: Whoever can play at the speed they want will likely find themselves in tomorrow's championship game.
Yesterday, St. Louis and Baldwin won with dramatic finishes, and the Vikings and Rough Riders cruised to victories as the four top seeds advanced as 2,607 watched at Stan Sheriff Center.
Now, who will be semi-tough?
When Baldwin meets Hilo at 8, the Bears hope their hibernation offense and strangling matchup-zone defense which helped them beat Radford, 35-32, yesterday will be as effective against the Vikings.
"Yeah, it's boring, but it works," said Baldwin ballhandling whiz Cliff Dagulo.
Hilo, with pressure defense and Mandaquit running its trademark no-speed-limit offense, has a much different definition of the word tempo. The Vikings, with Mandaquit scoring 18 points, blew by Iolani, 61-41.
"We're going to run every chance we get," Mandaquit said.
"Looks like we've got another team that likes to run," Rough Riders coach Jon Chung said. "We just have to stay in our game. They're too physical. We beat them by one in preseason, but they had just three practices after (football)."
The Crusaders edged Kalaheo's Mustangs, 59-58, in overtime after frittering away an 11-point halftime lead. They will try to catch Roosevelt in transition to take advantage of Junior Wong's athleticism, and negate the long arms of LaBarre, Roosevelt's 6-foot-7 center.
"All season long, we've needed to put pressure on up front," St. Louis coach Delbert Tengan said.
For St. Louis and Hilo, it's been there, won that -- both schools own state trophies from the past.
Baldwin has reached the semifinals eight times, but never the championship game.
And Roosevelt, which won its first Oahu Interscholastic Association championship last week, keeps on conquering new territory; this is its first trip to the state final four.
At Stan Sheriff Center HHSAA STATE
CHAMPIONSHIP
Today's games
BALDWIN 35, RADFORD 32:
Dagulo and Kalei Houpo both converted three free throws in the final 2:52, and Houpo made a key steal at 1:23.The Rams' Jacob Avilla's 3-point try at the buzzer rimmed out.
Baldwin (15-3) dictated a slow tempo the entire game, and Radford (13-2) shot 34 percent from the field and made 23 turnovers.
Avilla and forward Sa Tanuvasa, the Rams' top scorers, were both saddled with two fouls in the first quarter.
But Radford stayed in the game thanks to Sam Baker's 12 points.
"We got a little rattled, but the end result was good," Bears coach Wayne Gushiken said.
Radford was whistled for 24 fouls compared to 12 for Baldwin.
"My best players sat out for a quarter-and-a-half," Rams coach Tim Harrison said.
Radford 4 6 5 17-32 Baldwin 8 12 7 8-35 RADFORD: Jacob Avilla 0, Jacob Sur 0, Sa Tanuvasa 2, Frank Kuresa 0, Isaac Dunklee 11, Justin Cariaga 0, Chris Pirtle 0, Brandon Reyes 5, Sam Baker 12, Jonathan Atimua 0, Matt Manuma 2.
BALDWIN: A.J. Garbin 2, Cliff Dagulo 9, Alika Amasiu 6, Kalei Houpo 5, Brandon Ahonima 5, Pono Ordonez 0, Reed Suzuki 4, Isaac Medeiros 4.
3-point goals-Radford 2 (Reyes, Dunklee); Baldwin 0. Rebounds-Radford 24 (Tanuvasa 5); Baldwin 23 (Houpo 7). Assists-Radford 6 (Sur 2); Baldwin 4 (Dagulo 2).
HILO 61, IOLANI 41:
The Vikings (12-1) used a 10-point first-quarter run to jump to a 15-7 margin and never lost the lead."We penetrated when we had to and moved the ball well and made the most of our opportunities," Hilo coach Larry Manliguis said. "We rebounded with them really well. Wesley Martinez (eight rebounds, 12 points) was really battling under the boards."
The Raiders (10-4) got 15 first half points from Bobby Nash to stay close, but he appeared to tire in the second half and finished with 18.
Iolani shot 29 percent from the field for the game, and Hilo's fastbreak was often unstoppable.
"We tried to control the tempo, but it was pretty ugly," Raiders coach Mark Mugiishi said.
Hilo, the Big Island Interscholastic Federation champion, is 5-15 in state semifinal games. The Vikings lost the state championship game in 1992 after winning their second state title in 1991.
Iolani 11 8 8 14-41 Hilo 17 8 16 20-61 IOLANI: Bronson Melemai 3, Travis McGaughy 3, Bobby Nash 18, Bobby Webster 5, Donny Mateaki 0, Shane Ouchi 6, Tyler McCready 0, Joseph Udell 3, Ryan Hannemann 3.
HILO: Jason Mandaquit 18, Wesley Martinez 12, Kimo Keiter-Charles 7, Napela Naniole 10, Holoakea Nathaniel 5, Bryson Moses 2, Preston Jarneski 2, Jason Santos 2, Tyson Takiue 2, Chris Kanakaole 1, Tim Toomey 0, Ashley Labowski 0.
3-point goals-Iolani 6 (Ouchi 2, Melemai, McGaughy, Nash, Webster); Hilo 2 (Keiter-Charles, Nathaniel). Rebounds-Iolani 35 (Nash 9, McGaughy 8); Hilo 37 (Martinez 8, Naniole 6, Mandaquit 5). Assists-Iolani 7 (Melemai 3); Hilo 9 (Mandaquit 5).
ST. LOUIS 59, KALAHEO 58 (OT):
The Crusaders' (11-2) Jason Rivers blocked a last-second shot by the Mustangs' (11-3) D.C. Daniels to preserve the victory, but Rivers admitted the play could have been ruled a foul."I got a little bit of hand, maybe we got away with one," Rivers said. "I was a little bit aggressive, but I figured the refs wouldn't call a foul with one second left."
Kalaheo led 58-57 with 55 seconds left in OT as Daniels scored the last two of his 29 points.
But John Paul Kanoa, who finished with 13 points, made two free throws with 37 seconds left for the winning margin.
"Beating Kalaheo, a program so steeped in tradition, is like beating a North Carolina or a Duke," Tengan said.
Junior Wong led the Interscholastic League of Honolulu champions with 18 points and four assists.
St. Louis last won the state championship in 1986.
Kalaheo 10 6 21 15 6-58 St. Louis 14 13 14 11 7-59 KALAHEO: Eric Sandoval 0, Ikaika Alama-Francis 9, Duane Ijima 5, Erin Moorhead 6, D.C. Daniels 29, Nate Ijima 2, Shaydon Marumoto 0, Andrew Braley 0, Karl Kuhau-Liftee 2, Adrian Aurelio 5.
ST. LOUIS: Joey Borja 3, Junior Wong 18, Enoch McKeague 7, John Paul Kanoa 13, Kalvin Koverman 9, Jose Vidad 0, Brenden Clement 0, Jason Rivers 9, Sanoe Mokuahi 0.
3-point goals-Kalaheo 2 (Alama-Francis, D. Ijima); St. Louis 2 (McKeague, Rivers). Rebounds-Kalaheo 29 (Alama-Francis 9, Moorhead 6); St. Louis 21 (Koverman 5, McKeague, Kanoa 4). Assists-Kalaheo 5 (N. Ijima 2); St. Louis 12 (Wong 4, Borja 3).
ROOSEVELT 57, LAHAINALUNA 39:
Van Dorsey scored 17 points and Steitzel added 14 as the Rough Riders (12-2) got out to an 11-2 first quarter lead against the Lunas (15-4). Lahainaluna shot 1-for-11 from the field in the first quarter."We had no patience and Roosevelt showed a lot of composure," said center Paulo Tuala, who led the Lunas with 17 points after a slow start.
Lahainaluna 2 10 14 13-39 Roosevelt 11 11 20 15-57 LAHAINALUNA: Harvey Alipio 0, Marko Ljubic 3, Aaron Nava 6, Paulo Tuala 17, Okusitino Finau 7, Trevor Toshikiyo 0, Sione Finau 6, Owen Omiat 0.
ROOSEVELT: Keola Steitzel 14, Van Dorsey 17, Chad Owens 0, Maulia LaBarrre 10, Chad Kapanui 7, Joshua Yoshimoto 3, Cyle Kuwanoe 0, T.J. Talaro 2, Cade Uyechi 0, Kala Koki 4.
3-point goals-Lahainaluna 1 (Ljubic); Roosevelt 3 (Steitzel, Dorsey, Kapanui). Rebounds-Lahainaluna 34 (Tuala 9, S. Finau 7); Roosevelt 40 (Dorsey 14). Assists-Lahainaluna 7 (Ljubic, O. Finau 2.)
HONOKAA 65, PUNAHOU 54:
The Dragons (11-4) beat the Buffanblu (10-5) in a consolation bracket game.
Punahou 8 17 15 14-54 Honokaa 18 12 16 19-65 PUNAHOU: Timothy Au 2, Daniel Lam 13, David Kowen 2, Adam Kyle 4, Kynan Pang 0, Richard Kim 0, Chris Young 0, Todd LaFoutaine 0, Jason Ching 0, Pono Kaimuloa 1, John Freese 5, Alex Fergus 6, Lucas Love 13, Dane Uperesa 0.
HONOKAA: Derek Gabriel 10, Austin Souza 19, Kenny Ruiz 3, Edward Aldridge 14, Kellen Tolentino 11, Andrew Gancinia 0, Jeffrey Juan 0, Kaimana Kahuanui 2, Erwin Valenzuela 4, Alan Texeira 2.
3-point goals-Punahou 2 (Lam, Saito); Honokaa 6 (Gabriel, Souza, Aldridge 2). Rebounds-Punahou 50 (Lam 8, Love 7); Honokaa 39 (Tolentino 9, Aldridge 8). Assists-Punahou 7 (Au 3); Honokaa 8 (Souza 3, Kahuanui, Gabriel 2).
Tim Crouse contributed to this story.
