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Saturday, February 19, 2000

Rough Riders
land OIA title

Roosevelt's first basketball
crown comes on a stunning
win over Radford

By Dave Reardon
Star-Bulletin

The last time Rough Riders made this much history, they were charging up San Juan Hill.

While Teddy's boys had a general idea of what they were getting into, the Roosevelt boys' basketball team didn't know until a day before last night's Oahu Interscholastic Association championship victory how special a win would be.

People tend to remember the first one.

"Coach (Jon Chung) told me (Thursday). I was surprised," said sophomore point guard Kaleo Steitzel, moments after weaving through Radford's defense and scoring 11 points. "It's a wonderful feeling to be part of the first one."

Van Dorsey scored 14 points and Chad Kapanui 13, and the Rough Riders fought back from an 11-point deficit in the second quarter to beat the top-ranked Rams, 53-46. A good portion of the 900 fans at the Blaisdell Arena watched the nets come down.

"When coach told us Roosevelt never won, it was more incentive to bring home the first one," said 6-foot-7 senior center Maulia LaBarre, a key with nine points, nine rebounds and four blocks.

Chung, in his 14th year as the Roosevelt coach, remained relatively low-key after the victory, even though it also had family implications.

"I coached Roosevelt for 20 years, and I didn't do what he did tonight," said Stanley Chung, Jon's father, who mentored the Rough Riders in 1973 when the Rams beat them in overtime for the OIA title. "I'm elated for him. I stay away, he does it all by himself. He knows what he's doing."

That was evident last night, as the Rough Riders (11-2) stuck to their strategy of mostly zone defense against the quicker Rams (12-1), even after Radford jumped to a 17-8 lead with three quick 3-pointers.

"I thought, 'Oh, there goes the game plan,' " Jon Chung said. "But the kids didn't panic and they hung in there, and the ball bounced our way."

Roosevelt chipped away at Radford's early lead, and trailed only 22-19 at halftime thanks to Kapanui. The 6-foot senior swingman scored seven points in the last 5:43 before intermission.

Dorsey helped, too. He didn't score until 3:23 before halftime, but he had 11 points at the end of three quarters.

"We kept our heads in the game. We'd been down by that much before," Dorsey said. "It was just sticking together -- team success over individual success, like coach always says."

Meanwhile, the Rams cooled off. Jacob Avilla hit two treys and an 18-footer in the early going, but missed all 10 of his following shots (nine of them 3-point attempts).

"He was tired, it just didn't drop for him," Radford coach Tim Harrison said. "From the second quarter they just controlled the backboards, and the ball wouldn't drop for us."

Roosevelt enjoyed a 35-29 rebounding edge, and LaBarre defended the middle -- not only with his blocks, but the threat of them.

"I think we got a little intimidated by the big guy," Harrison said.

A fast-break basket by Steitzel at 4:52 of the third quarter gave the Rough Riders their first lead, 27-26, since the first period.

But Roosevelt didn't truly grab the momentum until a 10-0 run -- fueled by baskets from five different Rough Riders -- made it 40-32 with 7:10 left.

Despite some fancy close-out dribbling by Steitzel, Radford had one run left; it closed to 49-46 with 44 seconds remaining on Isaac Dunklee's three-point play. But LaBarre responded in kind with 35 ticks left, and after a couple of Ram air balls, it was over.

"They took advantage of every mistake we made," Dunklee said.

Sam Baker led Radford with 12 points, and Sa Tanuvasa added 11.

Both teams advance to next week's state tournament, where Roosevelt draws a first-round bye.

Ikaika Alama-Francis scored 18 points as Kalaheo beat Mililani, 60-48, in the OIA third-place game. The Mustangs (10-2) and Trojans (8-6) both also play in the state tournament next week.

In the OIA junior varsity championship game, Mililani topped Roosevelt, 60-48.

Radford	13 9 10 14 - 46
Roosevelt	8 11 15 19 - 53

Radford: Jacob Avilla 9, Sa Tanuvasa 11, Sam Baker 12, Frank Kuresa 2, Isaac Dunklee 5, Matt Manuma 7.

Roosevelt: Keola Steitzel 11, Van Dorsey 14, Chad Owens 3, Maulia LaBarre 9, Chad Kapanui 13, T.J. Talaro 1, Kala Koki 2.

Kalaheo	14 12 11 23 - 60
Mililani	16 15 9 8 - 48

Kalaheo: N. Ijima 2, Alama-Francis 18, Marumoto 1, D. Ijima 9, Moorhead 1, Daniels 17, Braley 4, Kuhau-Liftee 8.

MILILANI: Monongdo 3, Abrams 1, Hernandez 6, Kirihara 1, Ching 10, Patoc 7, Grahovac 8, Santos 12.

ILH

Punahou 65, Kamehameha 56: Ryan Saito scored all six of his points in overtime, leading the Buffanblu over the Warriors and a trip to the state tournament.

Richard Kim scored 16 points for Punahou (10-4) and David Kowen added 10.

Isaiah Alameda hit four 3-pointers and tallied 20 points in a losing effort for the Warriors (7-7). Kolo Kapanui chipped in 17.

St. Louis and Iolani also will play in the state tournament, Feb. 22-25.

Kamehameha	14 10 10 17 5 - 56
Punahou	7 10 17 17 13 - 64

Kamehameha: Nouveau Naumu 6, Sean Uyehara 3, Nainoa Spencer 1, Isaiah Alameda 20, Kanoa Alapai 4, Kolo Kapanui 17, Reginald Maldanaldo 0, Willie Melemai 1, Joshua Steinhoff 4.

Punahou: Timothy Au 0, Kynan Pang 4, Richard Kim 16, Chris Young 2, Daniel Lam 9, Ryan Saito 6, Todd LaFountaine 2, Jason Ching 0, Pono Kaimuloa 0, David Kowen 10, Adam Kyle 2, Alex Fergus 7, Lucas Love 6, Dane Uperesa 0.