Kalaheo's Kupaa Harrison puts up a jump shot against Kahuku. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Fri, Feb 27, 2015 @ Stan Sheriff

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Kahuku

35

Kalaheo

36

Final	1	2	3	4
Kahuku (12-2, 18-6)	6	11	8	10	35
Kalaheo (13-1, 31-3)	6	8	9	13	36

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

K. Harrison 19 pts  2 3pm  3/4 FTs

D. Brooke 14 pts  6/6 FTs

K. Harrison 3 tot  1 off  2 def

D. Brooke 9 tot  2 off  7 def

K. Gilmore 8 ast

H. Harris 8 ast

MANOA - Kupaa Harrison scored 10 of his game-high 19 points in the fourth period, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with one minute, 30 seconds left to lead No. 3 Kalaheo over No. 5 Kahuku, 36-35, Friday night at the Stan Sheriff Center to advance to Saturday's New City Nissan Division I boys' basketball state championship.

The Mustangs (16-1) will meet No. 4 Iolani (11-4) in a battle of unseeded teams and winners of the previous two state championships. The defending champion Raiders, who beat Campbell, 29-27, in the other semifinal, are seeking back-to-back titles and their tournament record 11th overall. The Mustangs, winners of the 2013 championship, are looking for their fifth crown.

'It's everything we've worked for," Harrison said of returning to the title game. "It's satisfying, but if we don't do it tomorrow, then everything we've done doesn't mean anything."

"We knew we were going to be in a battle tonight," Kalaheo coach Alika Smith said. "They're long, they're big, they wear on you. It was just one of those things where we made one more play than they did. We did an excellent job defensively most of the game."

Following Harrison's 3-pointer, the Red Raiders turned over the ball with 43 seconds left when 6-foot-7 Denhym Brooke was called for basket interference on Keanu Akina's missed layup.

"(The officials) said he touched the rim," Kahuku coach Alan Akina said. "I don't think he touched the rim."

After Kalaheo brought the ball down to its side of the court, it called time with 32 seconds left and again with nine seconds. On the inbounds play near mid-court, Kekai's Smith to Kaleb Gilmore on the near sideline was ruled to have gone off Gilmore, turning over the ball to Kahuku with nine seconds left in the Red Raiders' back court. Kahuku worked the ball to the front court and called time with five seconds. Akina missed a short jump shot and teammate Kesi Ah Hoy got the rebound but missed, too, as time expired.

"We thought they were going to try a lob to (Denhym) Brooke or something," Harrison said of the Red Raiders' last-ditch effort. "We put pressure on them so they couldn't get to the basket. That's the difference right there; they couldn't set up what they wanted and just got a rushed shot."

The Red Raiders were indeed trying to set up Brooke, who was Kahuku's high scorer with 14 points.

"We were trying to set a give-and-go," Akina said. "Get it to Denhym and back door cut, but it wasn't open and we kicked it out. It wasn't the shot we were looking for; we were trying to get it inside, but that's how it goes sometimes."

What hampered the Red Raiders was foul trouble on 6-6 center Hyrum Harris, who drew his fourth foul with 3:41 left and fouled out at 2:57. He was curtailed to 16 minutes on the court.

"Our big guy being in foul trouble, he hardly played at all," Akina said. "That was the difference. I don't know how many minutes he played."

Coach Smith admitted Harris' foul trouble only could aid his Mustangs.

"Anytime you lose someone like that it's going to hurt your team," Smith said. "Someone that takes that much space, is that good. We were fortunate to get him in foul trouble and ended up fouling out, so we took a little more advantage of that and got inside. But at the end of the day, it does help us out."

Meanwhile, Kalaheo guard Kaleb Gilmore was hampered by a right-ankle twist, but managed to play 29 minutes. He paid for it with two field goals, each coming some 24 minutes apart. But the injury did not affect his ability to make eight assists, two leading to alley oops to Harrison. The injury came early in the first quarter when his ankle landed on another player's foot while making a rebound.

"Everyone was telling me to fight through it," Gilmore said. "I needed to be out there and that's what I did."

Gilmore was 2 of 9 from the field, 0 of 6 from 3-point range.

"I really didn't have much lift to my shot," he said. "I couldn't really get any force power going straight. But I didn't let it affect me."

Except for Harrison, who was 7 of 12 from the field while the rest of his team was a combined 7 of 22, and Kahuku's Brooke, who was 4 of 7 to the rest of his team's combined 6 of 19, the teams struggled on the offensive side. Kalaheo shot 37.8 percent and Kahuku shot 38.5 percent. After playing a school gyms the previous two games, the coaches said the players probably had trouble shooting with a different background of the Sheriff Center. Even Iolani and Campbell labored from the field in the other semifinal.

"You're at the University of Hawaii," Coach Smith said. "You're used to playing in small gymnasiums. Now it's open, now the basket looks like its by itself. We saw that Akina was 0 for 5 or something from 3-point range (actually 0 for 6 overall and 0 for 3 from 3-point range), so it takes a little getting used to if you don't have shoot-around in here, you have to adjust quick in your warmup. It's one of those things that (none) of the teams shot well."

The teams began tied at 6 after the first quarter before the Red Raiders opened the second with a 6-0 run and eventually took a 17-14 lead into the half.

The lead changed four times in the third period with Kahuku taking a 25-23 lead on Brooke's jumper with 1:13 left in the period.

Harrison opened the fourth with the first of his two 3-pointers to give the Mustangs a 26-25 lead. They would widen their lead to 30-25 and 32-27 before Avea Samuta's 3-pointer with 3:56 left made it 32-30. Kalaheo eventually made it 33-31 before Keanu Akina made both free throws to tie the game at 33 with 2:28 left.

Later, Brooke stole the ball and went the distance, finishing the play with dunk with 1:47 left to put the Red Raiders ahead, 35-33.

But Harrison's 3-pointer after an assist by Gilmore put Kalaheo ahead for good. From there, Kalaheo's defense took over.

"We had to gut it out on defense," Harrison said. "We decided to play 'D,' keep it under the 40s. They wanted to slow it down on us, so we said let's give 'em a taste of their own medicine, not play to their strengths, make them beat us on the shot."