Hawaii Prep's Justin Gecas drives to the basket against Kaiser. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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Hawaii Prep's Nicolas Palleschi puts up a jump shot against Kaiser. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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Kaiser's Trevin Kahunanui heads to the basket against Hawaii Prep. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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Hawaii Prep players celebrate after defeating Kaiser in the opening round of the Division II tournament. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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Thu, Feb 20, 2014 @ Kaimuki

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Hawaii Prep

44

Kaiser

41

Final	1	2	3	4
Hawaii Prep (12-1, 17-3)	14	9	8	13	44
Kaiser (5-6, 16-12)	16	10	11	4	41

C. Kalaugher 20 pts  1 3pm  3/5 FTs

J. Gecas 13 pts  1 3pm  2/2 FTs

KAIMUKI--Hawaii Prep Academy rallied late in the fourth quarter to topple second seed Kaiser in the opening round of the Hawaiian Airlines/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division II Boys Basketball State Championships on Thursday night at Kaimuki High School. The Ka Makani advance to play No. 3 seed Seabury Hall tomorrow at Kalani High School at 7 pm after they held off Damien earlier, 58-55. 

The Ka Makani outscored the Cougars 13-4 in the fourth quarter and outscored them in the second half, 21-15. Hide Akai and Justin Gecas scored 13 points each to lead Hawaii Prep. Akai hit two crucial free throws to put the Ka Makani up three with 23.9 seconds remaining. 

"We have tough kids, we've had adversity for the last two weeks, things have not gone our way with injuries and crazy games. This is another one, Kaiser is a really good team, we need to have it to be close and then we would then steal it and we were able to do that," said Hawaii Prep coach Fred Wawner. 

Hawaii Prep's David Ovbagbedia missed a one-and-one free throw attempt and Matt Haili grabbed the rebound and Kaiser called timeout. With 7.5 seconds remaining and trailing 44-41, Kaiser inbounded the ball and went the full length of the court, but Hawaii Prep stepped up the pressure to prevent the Cougars from getting a shot off as time expired.  

Akai hit two free throws to put the Ka Makani up 44-40 with 23.9 seconds left. Chance Kalaugher went 1 of 2 from the line to make it 44-41 and Ovbagbedia grabbed the rebound off the second attempt and was fouled. 

Kaiser went up, 39-32 after a Kalaugher field goal at around the 5:12 mark. Kalaugher scored all four of Kaiser's fourth quarter points and scored a game-high 20 points. 

"We had to chase because they were killing us, 32, (Kalaugher) we had no answer for him all night, what a terrific player. We had to try to get it out of guys, we did some scramble stuff and it enabled us to get some easy baskets and then we started to realize we had a chance in this thing, but it wasn't until the last couple minutes," said Wawner. 

Hawaii Prep fought back and turned up the half-court defensive pressure to stifle Kaiser. The Ka Makani took the lead after Nicolas Palleschi coverted the 3-point play to make it 41-39 with 1:35 remaining. 

Kaiser extended the lead by as much as 10 and started the third quarter on a 9-2 run. Gecas scored all eight of Hawaii Prep's points in the quarter and they trailed 37-31. He fouled out with 6:16 remaining in the fourth quarter. 

"Our kids just responded, when we lost 'Juice' (Gecas) with six minutes to go, I didn't have an answer how we were going to score and we found a way. That's the kids, digging down and we got some stops defensively," said Wawner. 

The Ka Makani took the lead in the second quarter, 19-18 after Hide Akai hit both free throws. Trevin Kahunanui tied the game at 21 after he hit a 3-pointer from the right wing. David Ovbagbedia scored off a nice give-and-go from Evaldas Vegertas to put the Ka Makani up 23-21. Kalaugher had a 3-point play in the lane when he threw it up as he was fouled. He made the free throw to put Kaiser up, 24-23. Isaac Slade-Matautia had a steal and layup to make it 26-23 going into halftime. 

Kaiser used a 12-0 run to start the quarter after Chance Kalaugher hit a 3-pointer near the top to make it 12-2 and Hawaii Prep called a timeout at the 4:15 mark. Following the timeout, the Ka Makani outscored the Cougars 10-2 to close the quarter after Justin Gecas hit a 3-pointer near the top of the arc and they trailed by two, 16-14 at the end of the first quarter.