Waiakea's Dillon Rellez battles Kaiser's Makena Kaneaiakala for a rebound. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Waiakea's Maikai Gahan takes the ball to the basket against Kaiser/ Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Kaiser Chase Kalaugher puts up a jump shot against Waiakea. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Waiakea's Lucas St. George slams down two-points against Kaiser. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Thu, Dec 26, 2013 @ Kaiser

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Waiakea

46

Kaiser

43

Final	1	2	3	4
Waiakea (9-3, 14-7)	11	10	16	9	46
Kaiser (5-6, 16-12)	9	9	6	19	43

C. Kalaugher 13 pts  5/7 FTs

L. St. George 13 pts  7/9 FTs

HAWAII KAI - Lucas St. George and Maikai Gahan combined for 24 points and Waiakea held off host Kaiser, 46-43, in the opening night of the first Cougar Basketball Winter Classic.

The four-team, round-robin tournament, which also features Maryknoll and Mililani, is the last tuneup before the teams begin their respective league play after New Year's Day.

St. George led with 13 points and Gahan had 11 for the Warriors, ninth in the ScoringLive/OC 16 Division I Boys' Power Rankings.

Chance Kalaugher led the Cougars with 13 points.

The Warriors (8-3) outscored the Cougars (5-4), 16-6, in the third quarter to open their three-point halftime lead.  The Cougars charged back in the fourth, outscoring the Warriors, 19-9, pulling to within three with 55 second left on Tarius Hill's 3-pointer to pull Kaiser to 44-41.  Then a outback by Kalaugher with nine seconds left made it 46-43.

Kaiser called time after the basket.  Freshman Calvin Mattos couldn't find an open player on the ensuing inbounds and called time.  On his second try, Mattos' inbound pass went to St. George, who was immediately fouled by Melvin Kahunanui.  But St. George, 7 for 7 from the free-throw line to that point, missed both double-bonus free throws, as Kalaugher came down with the rebound.  Kaiser called time with six second left.

Matt Haili inbounded the ball to Kelsey Lewis II, whose desperation 3-pointer from the top of the key fell shot at the buzzer.

"We've been trying to play with our second-string most of the year," said Waiakea coach Paul Lee regarding a rash of injuries his team has had in preseason. "I'm happy these guys are getting their playing time here. There's a lot of mistakes we have to correct, but we have a mix of seniors and a bunch of sophomores and freshmen, so we're just trying to blend them in. With all the injuries, we've been able to give the young guys some experience."

Kaiser had to play catchup in the fourth, but what really hurt was 10-for-21 shooting from the free-throw line.

"We've been struggling all season with free throws," Kaiser coach Branden Kawazoe said.  "We've been shooting about 50 percent. That has to become a bigger emphasis for us at practice."

Waiakea ended the third period with a 6-0 run to expand its lead to 13 entering the fourth period.  But the Warriors could not stop the Kalaugher, a 6-foot-5 sophomore forward, who scored the Cougars' first eight points of the fourth, the first six on a pair of three-point plays.

"With Chance, we always try to give him the ball early," Kawazoe said. "He has that type of abilities to take over a basketball game at the high post, in the paint, at the free-throw line. Yeah, he kept us in there for a while."

The Cougars pulled to within 42-38 with 2:04 left in the game on Hill's 3-pointer. But Kaiser failed to capitalize on a back-court violation by Waiakea when the Cougars mis-handled a pass that went out of bounds at baseline.

Trying to get the ball back, Kaiser fouled Cody Kojima with 1:01 left and he converted both ends of a one-and-one.  Hill's second 3-pointer with 55 seconds made it a one-possession game at 44-41.  But St. George was fouled and made converted his one-and-one with 21 seconds left to extend Waiakea's lead to 46-41.  Kalaugher's outback with nine seconds made it 46-43.  St. George's first missed free throws of the game with seven seconds left kept the Cougars in the game, but their 3-point try at the end failed.