KEALAKEKUA – In front of a raucous – despite the reduced capacity – home crowd for the first time all season, the Wildcats were ready to put on a show.
The Konawaena girls’ basketball team clinched a spot in Wednesday’s BIIF D-I Championship game, blowing out the visiting Cougars of Keaau 69-5 in their playoff opener.
“Definitely having fans here helps with the momentum of the game,” said Konawaena co-head coach Dawnyelle Awa. “The girls get a little more pumped up playing in front of family.”
The top-seeded Wildcats came out of the gate on fire, scoring the game’s first 28 points to quickly extinguish any chance of a Keaau upset. Four Wildcats scored in double figures, led by junior Braelyn Kauhi’s 18 points.
“We’re playing as a team,” said senior Kaliana Salazar-Harrell, who notched 10 points. “We have good team chemistry.”
Keaau scored their first basket early in the second quarter, and managed just one more field goal through the course of the contest, as a swarming Konawaena defense kept the Cougars uncomfortable all night.
With a big lead in hand, Konawaena’s five seniors left the game one-by-one in the fourth quarter to ovations from the crowd, marking their final game at Ellison Onizuka Gymnasium.
The Wildcats will face Waiakea, the winner of Monday’s other semifinal contest after the Warriors won a close battle over Hilo. While Konawaena surely has ambitions beyond a BIIF title, they’re not overlooking Wednesday’s game.
“Whoever wins the Hilo-Waiakea game, they’re both really good teams,” said Awa. “We’re just going to prepare for that before we think about anything else.”
“We’re just going to take it one game at a time, just keep playing hard,” added Salazar-Harrell.
Konawaena 28 19 13 9 – 69
Keaau 0 2 2 1 – 5
Scoring
Konawaena: Braelyn Kauhi 18 points, Pak 16, Salazar-Harrell 10, Losalio-Watson 10, Fong 5, Tuifua 3, James 3, Hao 2, Kiho 2
Keaau: Alyssa Kaheaku 3 points, Banks 2
Waiakea 50, Hilo 48
Waiakea bolted to a 15-point lead in the first quarter, saw it trimmed to a point with 32 seconds left, and prevailed over Hilo in a wildly entertaining BIIF girls basketball semifinal on Monday night.
Sophomore guard Jolie Mantz sank the game-winning layup in a 50-48 win over the Vikings in the Division I rematch at Hilo’s gym to clinch a spot to the state tournament.
“I was under control. I wasn’t freaking out like this is the last shot,” Mantz said. “I knew I had to make it, or we wouldn’t win.
“I thought we could have done a lot better. In the second quarter, we made a lot of mistakes, but we fixed it in the fourth quarter. We had our energy up.”
Mantz, who hit two 3-pointers, and Avery Snyder, who one hit 3-pointer, scored 15 points each, and Korrie Fernandez added 10 points for Waiakea, which committed 12 turnovers, including seven in the second quarter, but led 24-15 at halftime.
Veda Galima scored 19 points, draining two 3-pointers, and Keirstyn Agonias added 11 points, before fouling out with 4:15 left, and Alexa Meyer added seven points, hitting two 3-pointers, for the Vikings (7-2), who committed 11 turnovers and didn’t convert a 3-pointer in the first half.
With 2:59 left, Mantz and Maya Kaneshiro combined to make 6 of 6 free throws. Kaneshiro’s last two free throws gave Waiakea a 48-45 led with 25.7 seconds left.
“It was a good game. Our girls were ready,” Waiakea coach Alika Smith said. “They knew they didn’t show their best that night (in the first game, a 49-42 Hilo win). They came out strong, 22-7 in the first quarter. After that, Hilo’s seniors and good players started scratching and clawing back in, which we knew would happen. At the same time, we let that happen by not taking care of the ball.
“Mantz has been like that all year. She’s just solid, and the best thing about her is she’s a 10th grader.”
Then Galima sneaked her way to the basket and drew a foul. The senior guard calmly sank her free throw for a 48-48 tie with 15.4 seconds remaining.
Mantz had the ball on the left wing and zipped past Hilo’s defense for a layup with 5 seconds on the clock.
The Vikings couldn’t get a clean shot off in time. The season is over for Hilo, which last qualified for states in 2017.
Waiakea (7-2) and Konawaena (8-0) play for the BIIF championship at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Hilo Civic.
In the first game, a 49-42 Hilo victory, junior guard Alexa Meyer hit three 3-pointers for 15 points, senior guards Ayana Meyer buried two triples and had nine points, and Galima had nine points, including one 3-ball.
Mantz, a sophomore guard, moved well without the ball, caught and fired for five 3-pointers and a game-high 20 points.
But it was a much different story on Monday night with the pressure of win and advance to states or lose and stay home.
Waiakea jumped out to a 22-7 lead after the first quarter. Hilo outscored Waiakea, 8-2, in the second quarter when the Warriors committed seven turnovers.The Vikings outscored the Warriors, 11-10 in the third quarter, and 20-16 in the final period.
Galima buried Hilo’s first triple in the third quarter to cut Waiakea lead to 34-26 with 38 seconds left to head to the final eight minutes.
Alexa Meyer swished a pair of triples in the fourth quarter, her first to get Hilo within 40-38 with 2:59 left and her second to cut the lead to 44-43 with 1:04 remaining.
Mantz fed Snyder, who scored to push Waiakea ahead 46-43. Then Galima hit a bucket to get Hilo within a point, 46-45, with 32 seconds to go.
Kaneshiro was fouled with 25.7 seconds remaining and sank both free throws to push the Warriors ahead 48-45.
Galima then gave the Vikings the tie when she converted her three-point play. But there was more than enough time for Mantz to perform her magic act.
Division II
Honokaa 43, Ka’u 2
Kristen Ragasa scored 17 points and Rylee Velazquez added 13 as the host Dragons (4-3) needed just four scorers to advance to the semifinals in D-II.
Tyra Wong Yuen led the Trojans (2-8) with eight points – 12 fewer than she scored Friday in a loss at Honokaa.
“We did a pretty good job on Tyra,” Honokaa coach Domanic Tagabi said, “but it was hard to keep her down.”
Tawnee Carvalho added seven points and Goddess Gonsalves added six for Honokaa, which otherwise got by with defense.
“We went with a lot of high traps and we forced some turnovers,” said Tagabi, whose team also overcame foul trouble.
The Dragons will visit Kamehameha (5-3) on Tuesday for a spot in Wednesday’s final. On Feb. 1, Kamehameha beat Honokaa 60-22.
Pahoa 33, Kohala 18
Florie Mei Tagabi scored 14 points and Jaylynn Kaawaloa-Alidon added eight as the host Daggers (3-6) moved to the semifinals. They will take on top-seeded Hawaii Prep (5-1) on Tuesday in Waimea. The teams did not play during the regular season.
Mahea Pang led the Cowgirls (2-7) with nine points.