By KIM BAXTER Hawaii Tribune-Herald correspondent ADVERTISING HONOLULU — Some teams face adversity at the Hawaii High School Athletic Association basketball championships. And then there are the Kamehameha-Hawaii Warriors. In just the program’s third state Division I semifinal appearance ever,
By KIM BAXTER
Hawaii Tribune-Herald correspondent
HONOLULU — Some teams face adversity at the Hawaii High School Athletic Association basketball championships.
And then there are the Kamehameha-Hawaii Warriors.
In just the program’s third state Division I semifinal appearance ever, Kamehameha had to face second-seeded Kahuku with nearly half the team and coach Dominic Pacheco weakened with a debilitating stomach virus, and then the team lost star guard Lanaki Apele early in the second quarter with a nasty arm injury.
Yet the third-seeded Warriors, against all odds, powered their way to a 10-point lead early in the third quarter. But they just wore down at the end, depleted from the stomach virus, Apele’s injury, foul trouble and Kahuku’s endless pressure en route to a 57-50 loss Friday night at Neal Blaisdell Center.
It was an especially disappointing loss because with the team was sure it would have won either with Apele on the court or without any of the virus that kept half the team up all night and in treatment the day of the game.
“Teams face adversity, but our team probably faced the most adversity of any team in this tournament: food poisoning and what happened today, losing our best player,” said junior guard Shaun Kagawa, who scored 15 of his team-high 17 points in the first half. “But I’m proud of our boys. We played with heart tonight. We gave it everything we got. We left everything on the floor.”
Big Island Interscholastic Federation champion Kamehameha (18-2) will play the Maui Interscholastic League champ Baldwin (13-1) for third place today at the Neal Blaisdell Center at 3 p.m. Kahuku (18-1), the Oahu Interscholastic Association champion, advances to face top-seeded Punahou, which dismantled Baldwin 59-41, in the state title game. Tipoff is 7 p.m.
That the Warriors even had a sniff at winning Friday’s semifinal was a testament to the team’s grit and determination.
Players started to feel ill Thursday before the quarterfinal game against Academy of the Pacific, but shortly after that overtime win, players and Pacheco were beset with the full effects of some kind of sickness. The players said it was food poisoning, but Pacheco attributed it to a stomach virus.
Whatever the case, it was the worst pregame preparation they could have had. Senior Kaeo Alapai, normally a starter, said he spent the night vomiting every 20 minutes. Alapai and guard Kekoa Turner rested the bulk of Friday on the Kamehameha-Kapalama campus, trying to sleep off their ills and recover from the night. Three bench players were also ill. Kagawa, who finished with a double-double as he snatched 10 rebounds, also felt sick during the AOP win and those ill effects hit him again during halftime of the Kahuku game.
It was a stomach virus that affected the team’s starting lineup, the normal rotation, the players’ stamina down the stretch (Alapai admitted after the game he felt “less than 50 percent”) and even the coach as he spent much of the game near the end of the bench in case he had to sprint to the locker room.
And when the odds couldn’t get any worse for the Warriors, Apele jumped wildly for a rebound and came down awkwardly on his left elbow with 7 minutes left in the first half. The trainer and Pacheco rushed onto the court to Apele’s side, and the severity of the injury was quite clear, though he shouted “Let’s go!” at his teammates as he gingerly walked off the court.
“He’s our leader, he’s the guy we look to, he’s our No. 1 player,” Kagawa said. “And when he went down, we just wanted to step up for him and play for him. Everything we did on the court tonight was for him. If he was out there, it would’ve been a different game.”
Apele finished with six points in eight minutes, but when he left, the primary ballhandling duties fell to Kagawa. And facing Kahuku’s constant 1-2-2 fullcourt press proved too much for Kagawa, who is more of a scorer than a point guard. Kagawa mustered just four points after Apele’s injury.
However, Kamehameha seemed to have overcome it all as it pushed to a 41-31 lead with 5:39 left in the third quarter. But Kahuku slowly chipped away at the deficit, and when junior Kawahena Johnson hit a 3-pointer — the Red Raiders’ only trey of the game — with 3:53 remaining, they took the lead for good.
Kahuku finished the game outscoring the Warriors 26-9, forcing eight turnovers and making 9 of 13 free throws to clinch a title berth.
“What we went through last night and today was crazy, but hats off to them,” Pacheco said. “We battled through it. … We had our chances, but if we had one more player that could step up …”
Kamehameha 20 16 9 5 — 50
Kahuku 17 14 8 18 — 57
