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Stacy Kaneshiro | ScoringLiveFebruary 16, 2018, 9:24pm
Fri, Feb 16, 2018 @ Stan Sheriff
MANOA — Saint Francis overcame some obstacles in repeating as state champion.
The Saints (29-3), third in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Power Rankings, overcame a slow start en route to a 76-52 win against Damien to capture their third Snapple/HHSAA Division II Boys Basketball State Championship Friday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The Saints, who aren't big on depth, faced some issues entering the tournament. They lost senior Manoa Kualii-Moe for disciplinary reasons and lost Bryce Nishida for the opening game because what was deemed a flagrant foul in last year's title game. He was not ejected from that game and the determination for the one-game suspension this year came weeks after the tournament.
"More awesome than I expected only because of some of the adversity that we encountered at the end of the season," Saints coach Ron Durant said of repeating as champs. "Losing Manoa (Kualii-Moe) and Bryce (Nishida) not being able to play in the opening game, that was a concern of mine whether we would be able to sustain."
Thanks to junior Kameron Ng's game-high 29 points, the Saints turned a close first period into a rout. Younger brother Kordel followed with 15 points and Nishida added 11.
"That's Kameron," Durant said. "He's special. He can put us on his back and he can take care of it."
Kameron Ng got off the slow start, making one of three field goals in the first quarter, which was tied three times with Damien owning leads of 11-5 and 13-11 before the Saints tied it at 13 on free throws by Bubba Akana and took the lead for good on Titus Liu's 3-pointer with 16 seconds left in the period to cap an 11-2 run.
"I came out a little nervous," Kameron Ng said. "I hit one shot and I think it was over after that. I got in my zone and we came out on top."
He found his zone by opening the second period with the first of his three 3-pointers. The Monarchs (16-9) pulled to within 21-20 with 6:16 in the second, but the Saints closed the half with a 15-6 run to take a 10-point lead at the break.
"Defense by far (was the difference)," Durant said. "It was almost like a repeat of last year against Kalani. Our defense is always a catalyst that gets things going. We played much better defense in the second quarter. We let down a little bit in the last minute. We had a 14-point lead and then it went down to 10, but we came back and we stretched it."
Vukovic, a 6-foot-3 forward, pulled a double-double with a game-leading 10 rebounds, seven on the defensive side.
"We just came out and played our game," said Vukovic, one of two senior starters (the other is Nishida). "Just be ready. Go hard, play hard."
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