St. Joseph junior Cole DeSilva had one of those games basketball players always dream about, where the shots keep falling and everything hits nothing but net. ADVERTISING St. Joseph junior Cole DeSilva had one of those games basketball players always
St. Joseph junior Cole DeSilva had one of those games basketball players always dream about, where the shots keep falling and everything hits nothing but net.
The 5-foot-10 guard scored 32 points in the best performance of his young career, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Honokaa, which prevailed 73-67 in the Cardinal Classic on Friday.
DeSilva delighted the Cardinal faithful with a fine display of marksmanship at the preseason tournament at Afook-Civic Auditorium, where he buried seven 3-pointers, including four in the first quarter.
“Cole got going. It was his best shooting game so far,” St. Joe coach Mike Scanlan said. “We were waiting for him to have one of those. He’ll shoot good in practice and in men’s league, but it’s the first time we saw him have that confidence in a game. Hopefully, it snowballs.
“In the first half, he got a lot of 3s in transition. In the second half, he got them in what we call a bump screen, a fade to the top of the key.”
DeSilva was nearly automatic at the stripe with 5 of 6 free throws, and Manato Fukuda was equally effective with 10 of 11 free throws to finish with 19 points for St. Joe.
Shyrome Batin scored 21 points for Honokaa, nailing four treys.
Jonathan Charbonneau added 17 points and Wesley Salboro had 13 points, including two 3-balls.
“We’re kind of young and I’m hoping our seniors (Batin and Salboro) provide a lot of leadership,” Honokaa coach Jayme Carvalho said. “When we executed, we did what we wanted and got good looks and opportunities. When we didn’t, they hit 3-pointers on us. We were running a zone and DeSilva was killing us, so we had to go with a man (defense).”
It sort of worked.
DeSilva scored one point in the second quarter, but bombed away with two long balls in a 14-point third period scoring spree, and another 3-ball in the final eight minutes.
In the fourth quarter, DeSilva buried his final 3-pointer to leapfrog St. Joseph to a 61-59 lead with 4:15 remaining. Then Honokaa retook the lead, and DeSilva tied it twice.
He converted two free throws to tie it 63-63 with 2:53 to play. Then DeSilva cut to the basket off a screen, caught a sharp pass from Zack Jordan, and dropped in a layup.
It was a well-executed play, but on Honokaa’s possession Dominick Galacgac was all alone under the basket, after a defensive breakdown, and scored an easy layup for a 67-65 lead with under a minute left.
From there, the Dragons converted 5 of 6 free throws to send the Cardinals into the seventh-place game at 5 p.m. Saturday against the Hilo-Ka’u loser.
Carvalho had a good chuckle about Honokaa’s closing hot streak at the free throw-line.
“Prior to that, we went 0 for 6 or 0 for 7,” he said. “But our guys stepped up and our conditioning kicked in and we made some easy baskets.”
Last season in the Big Island Interscholastic Federation, St. Joseph and Ka’u played in the final weekend with a lone victory on the line. The Trojans won 65-47 at Hilo Civic and finished with a 1-10 record while the Cardinals had a 0-10 mark.
Scanlan really likes his team, despite the loss of three All-BIIF honorable mentions picks in Ben Uhlmann, Michael Silva, and Edgar Barclay. DeSilva wasn’t recognized, but it’s pretty obvious he’s improved because of his hard work over the summer.
Fukuda is a helpful new addition to the lineup. He’s a 5-5 sophomore guard from Japan. He’s been playing basketball since he was 8 years old.
“He barely speaks English, but he knows basketball pretty good,” said Scanlan in all seriousness, even though it was a pretty funny line.
There’s more youth with 5-4 freshman guard Jakob Au, who can share point guard duties with Manato in St. Joe’s Princeton offense, which involves lots of screens and backdoor cuts.
Koa Galves, a 5-8 senior guard, is the other returning starter along with DeSilva. Galves is another Cardinal who worked on his game during the offseason.
“He worked really hard over the summer on his shot. Every other day, he shot 1,000 times,” Scanlan said. “His shot is really coming around. He wishes he did it earlier in his career.”
Kaena Nahoopii, a 5-10 junior, is the only post in the lineup. His job is pretty clear cut: grab rebounds and screen somebody to free up shooters.
Defensively, the Cardinals have relied on a 2-3 zone for basically forever. That was the scheme Harry Leite-Scanlan ran. The former coach and Mike’s dad passed away in 2011.
“We can press and that’s something St. Joe has never done before,” Scanlan said. “Jakob and Manato can go out and get steals and we can run. We can always fall back into our zone.
“I like our energy. We’ll be really competitive this season.”
State glory
It was only a few years ago that St. Joe was an annual participant at the Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division II state tournament. The Cards qualified for states in 2007, 08, ‘10 and ‘11 under Leite-Scanlan.
The Cardinals won the BIIF Division II title in 2010, the school’s first league championship since 1974, long before statewide classification started in 2007.
That 1974 squad holds the distinction of being the first BIIF team to keep Hilo from making the postseason, dating back to the 1930s.
St. Joseph won the 2nd annual HHSAA state AA championship in 1958. The Cardinals, under coach Walter Victor, defeated Saint Louis 53-51 in overtime at Hilo Civic.
Dias donors
Clifford Dias, a 1967 St. Joseph graduate, and his wife Kathie have made a generous donation to the Cardinal Classic and are continuing sponsors.
Dias played sports, including basketball, at St. Joseph and retired as a bank executive. He served as a captain in the U.S. Army, and received a number of honors, including the “My Boss is a Patriot” award from the Department of Defense.
He was selected as a “significant 75” graduate of the University of Portland’s school of business.
Kathie is a retired nurse and administrator. They reside in Portland, Ore., where they met in college.
Friday’s results
Hilo 56, Ka’u 33
Honokaa 73, St. Joseph 67
St. Louis 65, Kamehameha 45
Pahoa 42, Waiakea 36
Saturday’s games
Ka’u vs. St. Joseph, 5 p.m.
Honokaa vs. Hilo, 6:30 p.m.
Kamehameha vs. Waiakea, 8 p.m.
Pahoa vs. St. Louis, 9:30 p.m.
