KAILUA-KONA — Midway through the third quarter at Kealakehe, a small but vocal group of St. Joseph supporters started gaining steam.
“Dagger,” one yelled as junior guard Ruka Suda’s 3-pointer swished through the net.
While it certainly wasn’t the game-winner, the shot helped the Cardinals grab control of the high-scoring contest and down the host Waveriders 87-83.
The Cardinals jacked up a whopping 48 3-pointers in the game, which actually fell short of their goal of 60. St. Joe had 14 of those go in.
It’s a new style coach Mike Scanlan is trying out, transitioning from the squad’s traditional Princeton offense, which had more of a focus on motion and cuts. Now, it’s all about the 3-ball.
“They bought in,” Scanlan said. “We told them they would have to take a lot of threes but that they would to miss a lot of threes too. You have to be willing to do it and have a short memory.”
Scanlan said the system is modeled after that of Grinnell College, which famously had guard Jack Taylor score 138 points in a single game for the collegiate scoring record.
Suda didn’t quite get to that number, but he led the way with 25 points for the Cardinals, shooting 73 percent from the floor, including five 3-pointers. Manato Fukada added 19 and two other players were in double-digits for St. Joe.
All but one player scored for the Cardinals, which is also a side effect of the new system. Everyone plays and substitutions happen every 90 seconds or so.
The win broke a string of losses for the defending BIIF DII champion Cardinals (3-7) and bolstered their playoff hopes. The squad has another important matchup against Ka‘u coming up Monday.
“We have a lot of guys that can run, shoot and hustle,” Scanlan said. “It’s big for the boys. We had been putting in the work but just falling short.”
The loss was the second in as many nights for Kealakehe (4-5), which barely had time to shake the feeling of a stinging road loss to Kamehameha on a free throw with no time left.
Bryton Lewi didn’t show any signs of fatigue, slashing his way through the Cardinal defense for 36 points in the losing effort. Team statisticians also had Lewi marked down for 21 rebounds, which is one of the more impressive double-double lines in recent memory.
The first nine points of the game were scored off 3-pointers, which quickly became the theme. While Kealakehe didn’t have as much success from beyond the arc, hitting just six in the game, Makana Kaiawe-Kaluau nailed back-to-back 3-pointers to kick off the contest.
Lewi’s hard work penetrating the Cardinal defense and grabbing his own misses gave Kealakehe the early edge. At the end of the half, Kealakehe did get a bit of sweet karma from the night before, when Qishaun Gallon drove to the hoop but was fouled as time expired. He hit 1-of-2 with all zeroes on the clock to give Kealakehe a 39-32 edge.
As expected, St. Joe came out firing out of the break for an eventful third quarter. The Cardinals racked up five 3s in the stanza, one of the biggest a deep trey from freshman guard Keegan Scanlan with less than 10 seconds remaining.
St. Joe built its lead to as big as seven in the fourth quarter, but Kealakehe hung around with some stellar work on the offensive glass. It also helped that the Cards shooting suddenly went cold midway through the fourth.
Lewi gave Kealakehe the lead back for the first time with around three minutes left, but Dylan Costales answered back with a corner-three. Lewi again went to the rim, grabbing his own rebound on a miss and putting it away to tie the game.
But it was the good ol’ cut to the rim that was the true dagger for the Cards. An easy layup and late free throws sealed the deal for St. Joseph.