KAPALAMA HEIGHTS – Quality possessions and interior presence was the recipe for a big Kamehameha win on statewide television. 

Kamehameha, ranked No. 7 in the ScoringLive/OC16 Boys Basketball Power Rankings, outscored Mid-Pac by ten in the second half to come away with a 60-47 win Saturday night at Kekuhaupio Gym. The Warriors improves to record to 2-3 in league play while the Owls drop to 0-5. 

“Every win is gold, it’s precious. It’s so hard in our league just to get one,” Kamehameha coach Greg Tacon said on the win. “I thought my guys executed really well tonight in different situations.”

Leading the way for the Warriors was Kayson Smith-Bejgrowicz who finished with a double double of 11 points and 10 rebounds. 

“It was a great confidence booster for me,” Smith-Bejgrowicz said on his performance. “I feel like I needed this for a little bit, and I finally found myself after a little while.” 

“He was finishing tonight, which is great for him,” Tacon added on Smith Bejgrowicz’s production. “He played so hard on the boards. I’m really proud of him the way he kept rebounding and rebounding cause there’s a lot of traffic down there.” 

Alaka’i Freitas also helped shoulder the load, finishing with a team-high 15 points. His hustle and activity around the basket was instrumental for the Warriors’ big second half.

“He does all the little things that gives him catches and put backs – and he runs out on the break to get layups,” Tacon said on Freitas. “It’s not like we’re running stuff for him. He realizes that for him to get stuff, he has to do extra. He’s a good guy for that. I just think he’s a good basketball player with a good sense of where to be on the court.”

The Warriors really worked for good looks at the basket, milking possessions for quality buckets. Kamehameha’s determination to execute in half court sets allowed them to convert 52.9 percent of their shot attempts. 

“I feel that we valued most of our possessions tonight,” said Smith-Bejgrowicz.

Kamehameha started the game red hot, going 4-for-5 from the field to take an early 8-1 lead, prompting Mid-Pac coach Dwight Holiday to call a timeout. Andrew Kargol’s baseline drive and reverse layup out of the timeout jump-started a mini-run for the Owls, helping them trim the deficit to three at the end of the first quarter. Quipping in the most in this Owls’ run was reserve forward Den Suehiro, scoring six of his eight points in the quarter.

The second quarter was much more closer with both teams scoring 11 points apiece. Kyle Husslein came off a screen to knock in a 3-point shot, tying the game at 18-all within the first 90 seconds of the quarter. The two teams’ continue to go back and forth throughout the rest of the quarter until Jaycob Smith’s buzzer beating triple before halftime. Smith’s trey gave Kamehameha a 27-24 lead at the break.

Mid-Pac came out of the locker room with determination, going on an 8-2 run to take a three-point lead two minutes into the the second half. Husselein’s tough layup in the lane capped the run, forcing Tacon to call timeout at the 5:59 mark of the third quarter.

The much needed timeout helped Kamehameha retake the lead, outscoring Mid-Pac by 11 points the rest of the quarter to take a 45-37 lead heading into the final period of regulation. Freitas led the third quarter effort, scoring seven of his 15 points in the quarter.

“It’s pretty much in our hands. We can take it if we wanted to. We can very much lose it if we wanted to,” Smith-Bejgrowicz said on the coaches’ message during the break. “We just took the initiative to get out there. Although we got a rough start to the second half, we realized what we needed and we did what we needed to do to get it done.”

“Usually it’s tight in the first half in all our games,” added Freitas. “We just really wanted to come out strong in the third quarter like we haven’t in the past. We emphasized that at halftime, just coming out strong and getting momentum back.”

This second half scoring surge was too much for Mid-Pac to overcome, losing to Kamehameha by 13 points. Husslein led the Owls in the loss, finishing with a game-high 19 points with three rebounds.

Due to grades and injuries, the Warriors were short handed in the contest, only suiting up nine. In spite of these, all nine players were able to contribute points to the teams’ scoring output. 

Saturday’s game concludes the first round of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I regular season. Kamehameha opens up the second round of league play at home against No. 3 Iolani, the team who defeated the Warriors in the ILH season opener.

It doesn’t get any easier for Mid-Pac who takes on No. 2 Maryknoll on the road. The second round of the ILH regular season gets under away on Jan. 22. 

“Great win tonight,” said Smith-Bejgrowicz. “It was actually a good booster for our team, I think we needed it. We’re going to use (this win) to take on this next few couple weeks; we got hard teams coming up next. Good learning experience on pressure and dealing with things and cleaning up what we needed to clean up.”