Roosevelt downs Castle for OIA D2 title

The Rough Riders celebrate after beating Castle for the OIA Division II title. CJ Caraang | SL

Roosevelt found Sunshine and Castle's backdoor wide open Wednesday night.

Sunshine Vicente scored a game-high 18 points and the Rough Riders exploited the Knights' backdoor in a 61-39 win for their first Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II girls' basketball crown since 2004 at McKinley's Student Council Gymnasium. Roosevelt also has five titles in D1/pre-D2 era.

Roosevelt (8-4) and Castle (4-9), as well as Waipahu (4-8) and Pearl City (3-10), have qualified for the HHSAA/Snapple D2 state tournament which starts Jan. 31.

"The girls did a great job of sticking together throughout the course of the year," said Roosevelt coach John Chung, who had to take over the team in a last-minute move that saw Chad Kaihe leave the program just before the regular season started. "It's all them."

The halves were like sunshine and night for the Rough Riders, who trailed 12-11 after the first period. The teams stayed even most of the second period and saw the game tied at 26. But Haven Gabriel drained a 3-pointer just before the half to give Roosevelt a 29-26 lead into the break. Gabriel scored nine of her 13 points in the second half.

"First half, we were really nervous," Vicente said. "You know, all the (TV) cameras and everyone who was here to support us. We just really wanted this win. We just wanted this so badly."

Vicente also had three steals, scoring off two of them.

"That girl is something else," Chung said of Vicente. "She practices hard, she plays hard. Anytime she makes a mistake, head down and goes right back in it. Great kid."

It was a rough night for the Knights, who were consistently burned on back-door plays by the Riders.

"Second half, we just gave up too much backdoor (plays)," Castle coach Joe Lilio said. "Just missed assignments on defense. We try to play tough defense and hopefully the ball goes on (our) offensive end."

Because Chung took over at the last minute, the Riders really never worked on the backdoor play. They started working on it only on Tuesday.

"We really didn't go over it during season," Vicente said. "We went more on it yesterday at practice and it worked out for us."

Chung said he wanted to employ the backdoor earlier in the season but said the team had other things to work on.

"We kind of put in the special play yesterday and the girls executed it real well, so we're happy with that," Chung said.

Tiari Hookano led Castle with nine points, all coming in the first half. The Knights were also hampered by foul trouble by Shayla Young, who had five points, three rebounds and a steal. She was forced to be less aggressive in the second half.

"Once she got the three charges, she couldn't be aggressive," Lilio said. of Young. "After the third charge, she just kind of got gun-shy already."

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].