They’d display strong help defense in spurts, showing the improvement in an area Kahea Schuckert tabbed a team weakness.
But the Big Island Stars couldn’t do it consistently enough against yet another team that enjoyed a big height advantage.
The Big Island club basketball team suffered a 54-38 loss to Washington’s North Sound Elite Saturday in consolation bracket play at the End of the Trails All-Star Division tournament.
Six schools in the Oregon City, Ore., area are hosting the eight-bracket, 224-team club tournament.
The nine-member Big Island Stars, competing in the 30-team Blue Bracket, dropped to 1-2 in the tourney. They will play one more consolation bracket game at 12:30 p.m. HST today against a team yet to be determined.
Schuckert and Daphne Honma serve as the team’s co-coaches.
“We’ve improved since we’ve been here,” Schuckert said. “But the kids (at this tournament), they’re just bigger. We’re not blocking out like we should, and we’re making too many turnovers.”
Hawaii Prep junior Tiana Reynolds scored a game-high 18 points, and Hilo junior Amber Vaughn added seven points.
Waiakea senior Daven Namohala-Roloos, who scored four points, has been a force on the boards, averaging seven rebounds per game.
“She’s been putting up points on the inside and making her free throws,” Schuckert said of Namohala-Roloos, who tallied 18 points and eight rebounds in the Stars’ 54-46 win over Metro San Jose Silver on Friday.
But other than the 5-foot-9 Namohala-Roloos, the 5-9 Reynolds and 6-0 post player Kalo Uhilo, an eighth-grader at Lahainaluna Middle School, the Stars don’t have a lot of size.
Schuckert said the Stars’ games feature matchups of “5-1 guards against 5-8 guards” and “5-8 post players against 6-foot post players.”
“They’re all trying, but it’s just a shock,” Schuckert said. “They didn’t believe that (opponents would) be taller than them — all of them. They realize that they have to work hard if they want to improve.
“They’ve all contributed, in one way or the other, whether it be rebounding or creating a turnover.”
The team also includes five Honokaa players in seniors Yvonne Daniels and Keana Kaohimaunu, junior Shemika Frazier, and sophomores Jasmine Castro and Shayla Ignacio.
Kaohimaunu and Ignacio are transferring to Honokaa from Kamehameha-Hawaii and HPA, respectively.
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