Waiakea was in trouble early against Leilehua, a type of fast-breaking, physical team that’s an extremely rare sight in BIIF basketball.
The OIA’s No. 3 team overpowered the BIIF runner-up 82-53 in the first round of the HHSAA Division I boys basketball tournament on Monday at the Warriors Gym.
The Warriors (10-4) saw their first sign of trouble during the warm-ups. The Mules (14-1) start four players taller than 6 feet. Waiakea started one player at 6 feet in Keelen Andres, who played 13 minutes and scored two points.
Waiakea’s best post player is 6-1 junior forward Elijah Blankenship, who came off the bench, played 16 minutes and scored nine points.
The Mules, who next play No. 1 seed Kamehameha-Kapalama in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, were simply taller, faster and far more physical than the Warriors, who trailed 6-0 after two minutes and 37-23 at halftime.
Leilehua applied pressure defense on anyone who handled the ball, forced 22 turnovers and outscored Waiakea 20-8 on points off giveaways.
The Mules did a nice job spacing the floor to shoot 52 percent, including 10 of 25 on 3-pointers and finished with 20 assists.
The Warriors couldn’t get into a half-court rhythm and converted 38 percent from the floor, including 5 of 11 from 3-point range and had just 12 turnovers.
Logan Lasell bombed away for 20 points, hitting five 3-pointers, Landyn Jumawan had 19 points, drilling four 3s, and Davon Newman added 13 points for the Mules, who lost to Kahuku 59-58 in the OIA semifinals.
Kiai Apele scored 16 points on 5 of 12 shooting, and Keegan Scanlan had 15 points on 5 of 15 shooting for Waiakea, which fell into the deadly trap of state basketball.
When Apele got past one defender, another was waiting on the switch-off, and there wasn’t a weak link the Waiakea senior point guard could exploit.
He was able to glide through Leilehua’s tall defenders to slip the ball to teammates in transition, a reason for his four assists. But the constant pressure was nonstop, and he had eight turnovers.
Leilehua outscored Waiakea 36-22 on points in the paint, a reason why height is so handy in basketball.
Newman, a 6-2 forward and the only senior starter, parked himself in the paint and had a nice shooting day: 6 of 10 from the floor.
He exposed the one state-level mismatch the OIA and ILH basketball teams usually have over the BIIF squads.
If you have next to no post game and the jump shots don’t fall, it’s pretty much impossible to beat the state’s elite.
The Mules answered every time the Warriors made a run. In the second quarter, Scanlan scored on a layup, freshman Reece Bergen scored a basket, and Scanlan drained a 3-pointer off an assist from Apele’s kickout.
It was 19-17 with 5:11 left. But from that slim margin, the Mules quickly scored six straight points to take a 25-17 lead.
Leilehua closed out the second period with an 8-1 run for a 37-23 halftime lead.
In the fourth quarter, the Mules knocked down six 3-pointers, the last for a 77-45 lead with under three minutes.
The Mules might be considered one level down from the ILH powerhouses. They won a state title in 1973 and finished runner-up to Iolani in 1983. But that’s it for them.
Waiakea will miss the playmaking abilities of its two best players in seniors Apele, who can get into the lane and create a shot for himself, and Scanlan, who hit 4 of 9 from 3-point distance.
“We came out fast,” Leilehua coach Chad Townsend said. “We know they have two tough guards in Apele and Scanlan, and our game plan was to slow them down.”
He added that when the Mules arrived on the Big Island they were already battle-tested. They faced teams better or on a nearly equal level with them during the OIA season and playoffs.
“Playing a team like Kahuku, Kalaheo, Kaiser, and Kapolei helps to prepare us for states,” he said.
Waiakea coach Paul Lee knew his team lacked the type of talent and depth of previous editions.
“We’re a young team and we won some game we shouldn’t have won,” he said. “They put so much pressure on us and we didn’t have the ball-handlers for that. It almost was like pickup basketball for us. We couldn’t run our stuff. They totally took us out of everything. We got beat by a better team.”
