By KIM BAXTER Tribune-Herald correspondent ADVERTISING HONOLULU — Senior guard Lanaki Apele has scored hundreds of baskets in his four-year varsity career at Kamehameha-Hawaii. But none were more poignant — and bittersweet — than his uncontested layup to start Saturday’s
By KIM BAXTER
Tribune-Herald correspondent
HONOLULU — Senior guard Lanaki Apele has scored hundreds of baskets in his four-year varsity career at Kamehameha-Hawaii. But none were more poignant — and bittersweet — than his uncontested layup to start Saturday’s Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I basketball tournament third-place game.
Apele, one of the best guards in the state, dislocated his left elbow Friday in the team’s semifinal loss to Kahuku. But coach Dominic Pacheco and the Warriors coaching staff were not going to allow Apele’s career to end prematurely, with his last moments on the court being his writhing in pain, clutching his left elbow.
So they approached the Baldwin coaching staff and arranged to have Apele get one last shot, a wide-open layup. It was a feel-good moment in what has been an otherwise brutal state tournament run that finished with Kamehameha’s 53-49 loss to fourth-seeded Baldwin at the Neal Blaisdell Center.
“It means the world, especially since the other team contributed,” Apele said after the game. “I thank Baldwin so much for that. It means so much.”
It started at tipoff, with Baldwin backing away and letting the third-seeded Big Island Interscholastic Federation champions (14-3) easily win the tip. With Apele waiting by himself under his team’s basket, Kaeo Alapai tipped the ball to Kekoa Turner, who milked the moment with some between-the-legs dribbles and overly dramatic spin moves.
He eventually guided a slow pass to Apele, whose left elbow was so heavily wrapped that he only had the use of his right arm. Apele — admittedly nervous from the moment and the unexpected pressure — caught the ball in his right hand and pushed a standing, one-handed layup off the glass and in the basket.
“That was a special moment,” said junior Shaun Kagawa, who finished with 10 points. “We just wanted to get him involved in the game, the last game of the year. Unfortunately things went down (against Kahuku), but I’m happy how the game started. I’m glad that’s how it ended for him.”
Kamehameha then allowed fourth-seeded Baldwin (14-1) to score an uncontested layup, and when the Warriors brought the ball down the court, Turner intentionally stepped out to bounds to give the ball back to Baldwin and stop the game to allow the Warriors to sub Apele out one final time.
“We were honored to do it for him,” said Baldwin coach Wayne Gushiken, who guided the Maui Interscholastic League champions to their best finish at the state tournament since 2005. “Something like that, that’s bigger than a basketball game. It’s something that he’ll remember for the rest of his life.”
But as has been the norm for Kamehameha in this three-game state tournament run beset by Apele’s injury and a mystery stomach virus that affected half the team and Pacheco, the start-of-the-game good vibes didn’t last for long. The Warriors, many of them still feeling the effects of the sickness, watched a double-digit lead slowly evaporate as a second straight opponent overtook them late in the second half to squeak by with a victory.
It was a maddening three-game stretch that, despite giving the program its second-best state finish ever, left the team wondering what might’ve been. Kamehameha will lose seven seniors, including starters Apele, Alapai (who finished with a team-high 17 points and nine rebounds), Turner and Jacob Kackley (nine points, eight rebounds).
“The hard thing about it is what could’ve been,” Pacheco said. “That’s what we’ve got to live with, what could’ve been if we were healthy. I still feel like we’re the best team in the state. I knew this was a special group, but we had to fight through all this adversity and unfortunately it happened and that’s life and you can’t take things for granted. But leaving this court, I still feel like we’re the best team in the state.”
Kamehameha 14 9 10 16 — 49
Baldwin 8 13 11 21 — 53
