Tourney time for basketball

Defending girls basketball Division I state champion Konawaena has lined up some of the islands' best competition for the third annual Konawaena Winter Basketball Classic set for Dec. 3-5. State contenders 'Iolani, Lahainaluna, Molokai and Kamehameha-Hawaii are slated to play.

Konawaena's boys tourney, held concurrently, features Lahainaluna, Damien and possibly Kahuku, last year's D-I state runner-up.

A slew of tourneys are around the corner. Leilehua's girls basketball tournament tips off today with Castle, Pearl City and Sacred Hearts, but most of them start rolling next week and through December.

One step at a time

The flag-a-thon between Farrington and Honokaa — a pair of bruising, physical teams — in the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA State Football Championships on Friday wasn't a total surprise.

Farrington pulled away for a 48-16 win, but Honokaa coach Fred Lau was more concerned about his team's wave of 15-yard penalties in the second half. The veteran coach, in his first year in charge at the school, had established parameters for discipline from the start.

Lau expects more from his team, which won the Big Island Interscholastic Federation title for the first time since 1974.

“;Now I know, to compete at this level we have to play this caliber of competition in preseason,”; he said.