KEAAU — The Big Island’s young freshmen talent from the Hawaii Prep and Kamehameha girls basketball teams battled each other to the wire on Saturday night at Koaia Gym, where the future was on display.
Ka Makani freshman Brooke Samura hit a free throw with 2.1 seconds left to lift HPA over the Warriors 58-57 in overtime in a high school game, stealing the spotlight from Kamehameha’s two standout freshmen Maela Honma and Keanu Huihui.
Ka Makani received a balanced effort from Samura, who scored 10 points, Maja Burdova, who had 13 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, and Tiffany Bento, who had 13 points.
Huihui scored 14 points and Honma added 13 points, including a game-tying layup with 1:05 remaining.
Basketball runs in the blood for the Honma family. Honma is the sister of Bethany Honma, a 2020 Waiakea graduate, and the niece of Daphne Honma, the former Honokaa and UH-Hilo coach, and daughter of Clayton Honma, a Waiakea assistant. Like her sister, Honma also plays volleyball.
Huihui is a point forward, who can handle the ball, shoot from long distance and work in the paint. She’ll be a good partner with sophomore post Sarah Schubert, a first-team, all-BIIF pick last season, who hurt her knee.
The young Ka Makani, who have no seniors, welcome back junior Kyana Brucelas, who spent last season playing for Lahainaluna. She hurt her ankle and didn’t play. As a freshman in 2019, she was the BIIF Division II player of the year and led HPA to the league title.
It was one of the most improbable BIIF championship runs. HPA started the season 0-7, then were the last team to qualify for the BIIF playoffs and beat Ka’u for the title.
Bento, a junior, was lethal in transition for the Ka Makani, running down the floor and scoring, and so was Samura, a steady point guard.
Burdova still has her 3-point shot and showed the ability to hit a runner.
Both teams were a little rusty in the ball-handling department. The Warriors finished with 19 turnovers while Ka Makani had 12 giveaways.
HPA coach Lacey Hester likes the poise her young team has.
“They’re smart,” she said. “They have more composure than any freshmen, sophomore, and junior team I’ve ever had. They play their game. It’s a mental game, and that’s the hardest part. But they’ve got that down.”
The last time HPA had a standout freshman was 2019 when Brucelas led the team to its first BIIF crown since 2007.
Samura handles the ball well, can score in transition, and as her free-throw shooting showed, she can drain clutch free throws.
“She doesn’t get rattled and the team doesn’t get rattled. She runs our offense,” Hester said.
Bento played soccer last season and didn’t come out for basketball, but she’s putting her soccer speed to good use on the hardwood.
“Her improvement is strictly due to her hard work,” Hester said.
The Warriors don’t show a transition game like the running Ka Makani, but Kamehameha has a tough interior game and it’ll be deadly with Huihui and Schubert on opposite sides of the low post.
“She’s big and played all summer for us on our Hoop Dreams team,” Kamehameha coach Dominic Pacheco said of Huihui. “She has size and she’s athletic.”
Honma can grow into the role the coach’s daughter Nique filled last season when the father-and-daughter duo led Kamehameha to the BIIF Division II title and Nique was named the player of the year.
“She’s athletic and has a good touch from the outside,” he said. “For us, we just need gym time. We practice three times a week and I had only two girls last week. They’re all doing different things. They play volleyball, but the good thing is they all played basketball growing up.”
It wasn’t a BIIF game, so it doesn’t count, but the match was the next best thing: A preview of what’s to expect down the road.
