In the Big Island Interscholastic Federation, Waiakea is pretty much like everyone else – young with not much size and dependent on the things that are equal for all: defense, composure and determination.
But when the powerhouse Oahu teams come to town, the scale gets tilted and Waiakea looked like a mismatched puzzle against Kaiser, a basketball Goliath that brings size, speed and ultra-aggressiveness to the floor.
The Warriors kept searching for ways to counter all that in the semifinals of the Waiakea/Keaau boys preseason tournament on Friday at their gym, where they took a 61-48 loss.
The Cougars, who are coached by 2002 Waiakea graduate Branden Kawazoe, are the defending Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II champion, and a strong contender for the Hawaii High Athletic Association state title.
Last season, they fell to eventual state champion Hawaii Preparatory Academy 44-41 in the first round. Despite the loss, Kaiser center Chance Kalaugher scored 20 points.
On Friday, Kalaugher was a physically imposing handful, and scored 13 points while Keona Mahiko dropped 20 points and torched the Warriors with his quickness and long-distance shooting.
Kaiser led 28-13 at halftime and 45-24 after the third quarter. But instead of lamenting any shortcomings, Waiakea started throwing changeups when the Cougars expected fastballs.
Take Warrior senior Cody Kojima for example. He’s an undersized 5-6 point guard and isn’t blessed with Mahiko’s blur-to-the-basket speed.
But Kojima has been a student of UH-Hilo coaching legend Jimmy Yagi and is one of those lifetime Vulcan campers. He’s well-skilled in his fundamentals.
Kaiser played a box-and-one with one defender shadowing Waiakea sophomore Calvin Mattos, so when the Cougars sagged a hair on Kojima early in the fourth quarter he drilled a 3-ball.
Then he threw another changeup, taking his defender, who man pressed, off the dribble for a layup in half-court. On Waiakea’s third straight possession, Kojima fired another fastball right down the middle — a nothing-but-net 3-pointer.
Waiakea coach Paul Lee praised Kojima’s toughness and composure. He banged his right knee, and moved with difficulty but still played with his usual poise. Amuimuia flashed his promising potential with his post work and soft touch.
“I liked Cody’s calmness. He doesn’t get rattled and he’s like a coach on the floor,” Lee said. “He’s played four years, and he’s got great basketball smarts. We’ve put him in right positions on offense and defense, and he’s not that quick but he’s been one of our best defenders. He’s not backing down, and I liked his toughness.
“We brought Wes up in practice (from the junior varsity), and he did really well, and earned his way to start. He’s young and really raw right now, but he’s got good ability and has potential to be a pretty good player. He has all the tools. He can shoot the jumper, drive, handle the ball, he can get up there and get rebounds. If he keeps working, he’ll be an exciting player to watch, too.”
The guy with the most athleticism is Mattos, a 5-9 Swiss Army knife, who received All-BIIF honorable mention last season; there was no second team.
“He can pretty much play everywhere for us, but now we’ve got to put him in the post somewhat. Then we lack some ball-handling size on the perimeter,” Lee said. “He’s good in a lot of parts of the game. But Kaiser had a box-and-one against him and had one guy chasing him the whole time. That shows respect when you’re a sophomore with teams focused on trying to shut you down. He’s the biggest part of the puzzle right now to get us in the right direction.”
In Waiakea’s mismatched puzzle, 5-10 senior Mark Pacris is a center, a position he never played. He was previously a guard/forward.
Young role model
The class diversity is sprinkled throughout the lineup. There are two seniors in Kojima and Pacris, and two sophomores in Mattos and Wes Amuimuia. Junior guard Louie Ondo, the BIIF cross country champ, will be in the rotation mix; he was on the mainland for a running event.
The lone starting freshman is a promising one in 5-9 forward Jayden Opiana, who, like his teammates, kept his composure when Kalaugher’s ultra-aggressive style had the Warrior faithful hooting after really hard fouls.
Lee thinks his BIIF runner-up Warriors will present a nice challenge to two-time league champion Konawaena, which lost all of its starters but returns senior Kevin Medeiros and brings in three impressive freshmen, Austin Ewing, Maitland Haole Akau and 6-foot Paka Cacoulidis.
“We’ll play lot of man because we’re so small. Zone would be hard covering the post. We’ll have to get up in your face to try to get some offense started,” Lee said. “If we can score 12, 14 points off transition it’ll help our game a lot. We can do that now with the transition speed we’ve got. I know we’re going to get outrebounded a lot of nights, but we’ve got to get better at rebounding, and take care of the ball. We’re going to shoot a lot of free throws with the quickness we have and the passing and cutting, and we’ve just got to be better at the other parts.”