KEALAKEKUA – In front of a raucous – despite the reduced capacity – home crowd for the first time all season, the Wildcats were ready to put on a show.
The Konawaena girls’ basketball team clinched a spot in Wednesday’s BIIF D-I Championship game, blowing out Keaau 69-5 in the semifinals
“Definitely having fans here helps with the momentum of the game,” said Konawaena co-head coach Dawnyelle Awa. “The girls get a little more pumped up playing in front of family.”
The top-seeded Wildcats came out of the gate on fire, scoring the game’s first 28 points to quickly extinguish any chance of a Keaau upset. Four Wildcats scored in double figures, led by junior Braelyn Kauhi’s 18 points.
“We’re playing as a team,” said senior Kaliana Salazar-Harrell, who notched 10 points. “We have good team chemistry.”
Keaau scored their first basket early in the second quarter, and managed just one more field goal through the course of the contest, as a swarming Konawaena defense kept the Cougars uncomfortable all night.
With a big lead in hand, Konawaena’s five seniors left the game one-by-one in the fourth quarter to ovations from the crowd, marking their final game at Ellison Onizuka Gymnasium.
The Wildcats will face Waiakea, and while Konawaena surely has ambitions beyond a BIIF title, they’re not overlooking Wednesday’s game.
“Whoever wins the Hilo-Waiakea game, they’re both really good teams,” said Awa. “We’re just going to prepare for that before we think about anything else.”
“We’re just going to take it one game at a time, just keep playing hard,” added Salazar-Harrell.
