Salele Aliifua grabs the rebound
Kaiser's Ryan Chong launches a three
January 12, 2008
David Kawada - Content Editor
dkawada@digitalsports.com
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When it comes to local high school rivalries, East Honolulu has a good one between Kaiser and Kalani. The boys basketball teams met up Saturday night at Kaiser’s gymnasium with the Cougars continuing their good start to the OIA season with a 48-36 victory. Kaiser improves to 5-1 in the OIA White Division, 8-5 overall. Kalani drops to 2-4, 6-9 overall.
First year Falcon Head Coach Nathan Davis had the Cougar offense a bit on their heals with their zone defense. In fact both teams struggled to score in the 1st quarter. The first bucket of the game came on a field goal by Kaiser’s Kalua Noa at the 5:00 mark.
The Cougars under Head Coach Shawn Nagata mixed up their defenses, showing various zone and pressure defenses of their own to keep the scoring low in the opening quarter. Both teams would get more on track offensively ini the 2nd period and go into the locker tied at 19.
The 3rd quarter would see the Cougars begin to pull away. Noa, who led the scoring in the 1st half, scored in the paint and Salele Aliifua began to control the boards limiting Kalani to single shot attempts.
The Falcons Max Fujio, who had 6 points in the 1st half, was shut down in the 2nd. The rest of his teammates also found it difficult to find the rim.
With a 5-point lead going into the final quarter at 33-28, Kaiser began to take advantage of their height advantage with feeds into the low and high post to Noa, Aliifua, and Jeffery Gordan. The rebounding advantage clearly was in favor of the blue and gold team. Brannon Wong added 2 offensive rebounds with each leading to a put back layup. Wong would score all of his 6 points in the 2nd half.
With 2:39 remaining and Kaiser holding on to a 38-34 lead, Kalani had the ball and seemed poised to make a late run. But the Cougar half-court trapping defense forced 3 consecutive turnovers which led to scores. This would seal the deal for Kaiser.