Kamehameha pulls away from Kailua, 60-48

Kamehameha's Jaycob Smith attempts to drive past Kailua's William Kalilimai. Kristen Izumigawa | Special to SL

Alakai Freitas scored a game-high 16 points and Elijah Leslie added 13 to help Kamehameha to 60-48 win over Kailua Friday night in the late semifinal of the Surfriders Holiday Classic.

The Warriors (3-0) advanced to Saturday's championship game with the win and will play fellow-Interscholastic League of Honolulu member Iolani at 7:30 p.m. The host Surfriders (1-1) were led by William Kailimai's 14 points. They will play reigning Division II state champion Saint Francis in the 6 p.m. third-place game.

"The kids and myself, we're still learning each other," first-year Kamehameha coach Greg Tacon said. "The football guys — I've known them for what, three weeks? So we're just trying to figure out how we put this whole thing together and this was a different type of game, the pace wasn't exactly the pace that we'd like it. It was a physical game so it was good for our kids to make sure that when a game gets physical, you still have to show up in spots, you still have to execute, you just can't get caught up in all of the emotion of the game being physical, but for the most part we are going in the direction that I want us to go in."

The Warriors held a 32-22 lead at halftime, but saw that shrink to five in the fourth quarter before holding on to advance past the Surfriders.

"They knocked down some big shots and that happens," Tacon said. "I didn't like the way we started that quarter, because we gave away lot of possessions. We took some quick shots without even getting them anything and it wasn't like they were giving it to us, we just decided to take it, so we had to settle down and get some kind of a rhythm going because we're a rhythm team and until we realize what's a good shot and a bad shot, we'll go through spells like that sometimes."

Kamehameha was 23 of 34 from the free-throw line, while Kailua was just 21 of 47 from the charity stripe.

"We're way farther along than I thought we would be. I'm enjoying myself thoroughly with these guys and we're just going to get better and better," Tacon said.