By KEVIN JAKAHI Tribune-Herald sports writer ADVERTISING KEAAU — Even though he graduated in 2006 from Kamehameha, Mana Silva is still making an impact at his old school. The current Dallas Cowboys safety gave an inspirational pregame speech to Kamehameha,
By KEVIN JAKAHI
Tribune-Herald sports writer
KEAAU — Even though he graduated in 2006 from Kamehameha, Mana Silva is still making an impact at his old school.
The current Dallas Cowboys safety gave an inspirational pregame speech to Kamehameha, and it must have worked because the fired-up Warriors blitzed Hilo 82-58 in a Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division I boys basketball showdown Wednesday night at Koai’a Gym.
On Senior Night, Lanaki Apele put on a spectacular show, scoring 19 points, dishing four assists and orchestrating a potent fastbreak attack to help the Warriors clinch a first-round bye in the six-team BIIF Division I Tournament, where they’ll likely play the Waiakea-Kealakehe winner for a state berth.
“Mana talked about being focused, giving it your all and working hard,” Kamehameha coach Dominic Pacheco said. “It must have helped. I have to thank Mana for giving back to the program. We came out with a lot of intensity from the start and carried that throughout the game.
“Getting the bye is the first goal we had. But we still want to take it one game at a time. It’s a process to everything. We’ve still got two more games left and we still have to take care of business.”
Besides Apele, the other seniors are Kaeo Alapai, who added 16 points, Kekoa Turner, who had 11, and Jacob Kackley, Keoni Wong, Kamana Aiu and Easten Tanimoto, who received the game’s biggest cheers when his 3-pointer bounced off the top of the backboard and dropped in with 3:43 left in the game.
Unfortunately, that basket didn’t count. It mattered little because Kamehameha was already up 73-46 at the time, a nice cushion built on Hilo’s 16 turnovers, which were converted into 14 points.
Junior guard Shaun Kagawa added 15 points for the Warriors (10-0), the defending BIIF champions, who lost to Kamehameha-Kapalama in the Division I state tournament quarterfinals last year.
“We just tried to play ball and get the lead up, so we didn’t have to play catch-up,” Apele said. “It feels good to win. There’s no better way to end on Senior Night.”
Rico Loeak scored 13 points, Jalen Carvalho 11 and Nathan Leboeuf got nine points in mop-up minutes to lead the Vikings (6-3), who had a tough time finding a clean shot and finished at 28 percent (17 of 60) shooting.
Meanwhile, when the Warriors weren’t breaking Hilo’s fullcourt traps and scoring, Apele was taking his defender off the dribble and giving teammates easy layups. All those high-percentage looks translated into 56 percent (27 of 48) shooting.
There is still over a week left in the regular season, but Hilo likely will host Keaau in a first-round playoff game on Feb. 8. Last season, the Viks advanced to states as the BIIF runner-up, making it back-to-back trips, which ended a nine-year drought. In 2000, Hilo won the BIIF and state championships.
The game had that type of intensity, at least in the first half.
Apele had a wonderful opening 16 minutes, scoring 13 points and helping the Warriors to a 41-24 halftime cushion. However, he wasn’t the story — Hilo coach Jason Mandaquit and the officiating were.
With the Vikings dribbling in the corner with 1:34 left in the second quarter, Mandaquit screamed “timeout.” Hilo didn’t get the timeout and Mandaquit was charged with a technical for walking onto the court.
Apele made one of the two technical foul free throws for a 33-22 lead.
Then with 6.5 seconds until halftime, Apele threw up a shot in the lane and fell. Hilo’s Drew Kell was called for a push, his third foul. Mandaquit argued and was hit with a double technical and automatic ejection.
Apele buried all four technical foul free throws for a 39-24 lead. On the next play, he stole the ball and scored, ending an emotional first half.
The second half was far more sedate, the biggest cheers reserved for Tanimoto, who went 0 for 3 on 3-pointers but went out smiling, along with Apele and the others, on Senior Night.
In the junior varsity game, it was Hilo 47, Kamehameha 37.
Hilo 9 15 13 21 — 58
Kamehameha 19 22 19 22 — 82
St. Joseph 55, Pahoa 42: Senior Sebastian Ohara-Saft hit six 3-pointers and scored a game-high 20 points, and senior Thomas Fairman added 15 points and 18 rebounds at Hilo Civic as the Cardinals emphatically ended a three-game losing streak with their biggest win of the year.
Senior Christian Kaui added 11 points and senior Cody Andrade had seven points with 11 rebounds for St. Joseph (4-6), which pulled away after taking a one-point lead into the fourth quarter.
The Daggers (6-3) lost for the first time this season to a fellow Division II team and missed out on its first chance at clinching a top seed and a first-round bye at the six-team BIIF tournament.
Junior Nick Fisher led Pahoa with 16 points and senior Sonny Miguel had nine.
Pahoa 13 10 11 8 — 42
St. Joseph 13 14 8 20 — 55
Waiakea 74, Keaau 47: Sophomore Bryson Ita scored 13 points as the visiting Warriors got balanced scoring to clinch no worse than the East’s No. 3 seed at the BIIF Division I tournament.
Senior Lucas St. George and junior Owen Sandstrom each scored 12 points for Waiakea (4-5), and junior Michael Morikawa chipped in with 10.
Sophomore Davin Alviento scored 10 points for the Cougars (1-9), who will be the East’s No. 4 seed at BIIFs.
In junior varsity, Mark Pacris scored 11 points in Waiakea’s 46-39 victory.
Waiakea 23 10 14 27 — 74
Keaau 8 12 9 18 — 47
Kealakehe 73, Hawaii Prep 65: Jacob Ontiveros scored 21 points and the Waveriders made 12 3-pointers to win in Waimea.
Nalu Marks added 20 points and Deion Utera has 18 as Kealakehe evened its record a 4-4.
For the Ka Makani (4-3), Dakota Berman scored 27 points and Kama DeSilva had 10.
Kealakehe 22 24 12 15 — 73
HPA 17 12 24 12 — 65
Kohala 43, Honokaa 34: Junior Makani Kualii and Chris Roxburgh scored 12 points apiece for the Cowboys (6-1), who trailed 16-15 at halftime before taking control in the second half.
Alika Alip led the Dragons (2-6) with eight points.
In JV action, Kohala beat Honokaa 46-39.
Honokaa 12 4 9 9 — 34
Kohala 8 7 14 14 — 43
Konawaena 81, Laupahoehoe 17: Junior center Brenton Shropshire and senior guard Viliamu Uulopa each scored 13 as the host Wildcats remained unbeaten at 7-0.
Seniors Manao Alu and Kanoa Santiago added 10 points apiece for Konawaena.
Junior Justin Jose paced the Seasiders (0-9) with 10 points.
Laupahoehoe 0 6 7 4 — 17
Konawaena 28 26 10 17 — 81
Girls
Konawaena 53, Laupahoehoe 5: Junior guard Melissa Simon scored a game-high 17 points in Kealakekua as the Wildcats improved to 8-0.
Junior Vanistie Batin led the Seasiders (0-9) with three points.
Laupahoehoe 0 2 3 0 — 5
Konawaena 16 13 15 9 — 53
