Waipahu's Bryson Ansagay battles Farrington's Jacob McEnroe for a loose ball. Joshua Lopez | Special to SL

Purchase image 1 of 3

Waipahu's Brendan Mendoza-Bulong drives to the basket against Farrington. Joshua Lopez | Special to SL

Purchase image 2 of 3

Farrington's Jacob McEnroe puts up a shot against Waipahu. Joshua Lopez | Special to SL

Purchase image 3 of 3

Tue, Dec 3, 2013 @ Waipahu

---

Farrington

78

Waipahu

32

Final	1	2	3	4
Farrington (10-1, 26-5)	30	19	15	12	78
Waipahu (2-8, 4-16)	5	7	7	13	32

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

B. Mendoza-Bulong 13 pts  1 3pm  2/2 FTs

J. McEnroe 13 pts  3/5 FTs

B. Mendoza-Bulong 14 tot

T. Unutoa 10 tot

B. Mendoza-Bulong 2 ast

J. McEnroe 2 ast

WAIPAHU – It’s still early, but the Farrington Governors have established themselves as championship contenders.      

Farrington opened up their preseason slate with a big win over the host Marauders Tuesday night, 78-32.  It was a collective effort as 14 Governors were able to come away with points.

“It’s always nice to open up with a win,” Farrington coach Allan Silva said.  “It doesn’t matter if it’s 30 points or two points, a win is a win.”

Leading the way for the Governors was senior Jacob McEnroe, who scored 13 points with five rebounds, four assists and four steals. 

“I’m kind of rusty,” said McEnroe, who is 18 days removed from playing in his last high school football game.  “I’m getting there, I’m getting used to it again.” 

Farrington’s defense active all night long, gathering 23 loose balls and limiting the Marauders to just nine field goals.  Waipahu as a whole committed 32 total turnovers, equivalent to their point total. 

“They help each other on defense; that’s how we have to play,” said Silva.

Farrington was also active on the glass, really using their size to outrebound the home team 57-33.  Despite the rebounding margin, Silva still sees room for improvement. 

“50-plus rebounds is okay,” Silva said when told of the rebounding advantage.  “They did well but we got to get better.  Some of our bigger guys need to box-out better.”

Junior Tua Unutoa led the rebounding effort with his team-high ten boards.  Those ten rebounds were part of a double-double night for Unutoa, who also posted ten points, two assists, a steal and a blocked shot. 

The Governors came out guns blazing right out of the gate, jumping out to an early 6-0 lead, which was spearheaded by McEnroe.  The first bucket of the game came off a steal with McEnroe dishing it out to Seu Luafatasaga for the deuce.  McEnroe was also able to find a driving Isaiah Visoria in the lane after posting up on a smaller defender.  He later used his 6-foot-3 frame to out jump defenders and put back a teammates miss for his first points of the game. 

Waipahu got back in it with free throws from Jasper Sebastian, cutting the lead to three with 5:46 left in the first quarter.  Unfortunately that would be the closest they’d get as the Governors went on a 24-2 run to close the period.

McEnroe kick started the 24-2 run when he droved into the paint and posted up on a defender, before finding Visoria in the corner for a trey.  Visoria returned the favor with his steal and dish to McEnroe to put the Govs up by eight.  Farrington continued to score until Waipahu called timeout after Visoria’s pull-up jumper made the score 16-3.

Farrington’s reserves came in after the timeout and picked up where the starters left off.  Senior Guard Mark Dudalao notched back to back steals in one stretch and Junior Makana Correira hit a running shot just before the ending of the first quarter to make the score 30-5 heading into the second quarter.

“Our team has been working hard, every week,” McEnroe said.  “Running, that’s all we’ve been doing.  Running and working on (improving) our pace.  (Things) feel serious this year.”

The Governors continued to stymie the Marauders offense in the second period, getting three straight steals and field goals to start the quarter off.  Even when Waipahu could generate a clean shot, buckets just wouldn’t fall.  It wasn’t till the 4:01 mark in the second quarter when the Marauders knocked down their first field goal of the game.   Starting point guard Airon Castaneda found reserve Brendan Mendoza-Bulong open on the perimeter for a trey, but by then the score was already 43-9.

Farrington was able to cruise to the victory thanks to their size and depth, but Silva still says there’s much more work to do. 

“We won by a lot but there’s a lot of things we have to work on,” Silva said.  “We just got to keep on playing (and) executing together.” 

A bright spot for the Marauders was the play of Mendoza-Bulong, who got more run in the second half and notched a double-double off the bench.  He finished with 13 points, 14 rebounds, two assists, a steal and a blocked shot.

The two teams will be participating in two preseason tournaments over the weekend.  Waipahu will take on Saint Francis, who is the defending Division II state champions, in the opening game of the Surfrider Classic.  The game will be played in Kailua at 3:30 p.m. Thursday.  Farrington will take part in the James Alegre tournament being held at Radford.  They play Pearl City at 3:00 p.m.