Kaiser holds off Kaimuki to clinch final OIA D1 East playoff berth

Kaiser's Hayden Taylor puts up a shot over Kaimuki's Jinobi Paul in the third quarter of an OIA Division I East contest Saturday night. Michael Lasquero | SL

With the season on the line, Kaiser boys basketball coach Rob Blakeney will take a win however it may come.

Even if Saturday night was a little too close for comfort.

The visiting Cougars led by as many as 21 points in the third quarter before staving off a furious comeback by Kaimuki on senior night for a 55-49 win in both teams' final game of the regular season.

Seth Harman scored a game-high 16 points and Hayden Taylor posted a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds to help Kaiser secure the OIA East's final berth into the Division I playoffs as it improved to 5-5 in league play.

Because of the league's tie-breaking procedures, a win by the Bulldogs (3-7) would have punched their ticket into the postseason.

"The one thing they did, they never gave up," said Blakeney. "We had some breakdowns though to let them back in the game, it shouldn't even have been like that, but like I said, a win is a win. You got to take it. That helps us get to the playoffs, a new season, so now we'll see what happens from here."

Kaimuki was able to whittle Kaiser's lead down to 43-36 heading into the final period of play. Daysen Lupica started the fourth quarter with a corner trey and the Bulldogs later tied the game at 44 on another triple by Manduy Pham with 6:18 remaining in the game.

Much of the Bulldogs' comeback can be attributed to their full-court press that allowed them to steal possessions from the Cougars. Kaimuki also used a smaller lineup to have more quickness on defense and more shooting on offense.

"I think we got caught up with the hype of the crowd and the noise and they sped us up and we were making mistakes and got away from what got us here," said Blakeney.

A tough bucket by Taylor and a free throw by Harman regained the lead for the Cougars at the 5:03 mark of the fourth quarter before a putback attempt and the and-1 free throw by Jinobi Paul tied the game 11 seconds later.

The Bulldogs then took their first lead of the game with four minutes left when Lupica split a pair at the line. Kaiser ultimately took the lead for good when reserve guard Christian Komo sank both free throws to go up 49-48 with 3:37 left on the clock.

Point guard Trey Toyoma added to the lead with a free throw and had a nice floater in the lane to extend the Cougars' lead to 52-48 with 95 seconds remaining. Harman then saved a potential steal attempt by Kaimuki near half court before getting to the rim for a clutch bucket with under a minute to play. The two teams traded free throws the rest of the way for the final result.

"Our two guards, Trey and Seth, they're kind of the glue that holds us together and settles us down when we get a little out of control, so they did a good job with that," Blakeney said.

Toyoma finished with eight points, five assists and Jake Toner added seven points with seven steals for Kaiser. Komo was also solid with eight points off the bench.

Lupica led the Bulldogs with 13 points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals. Pham was the next leading scorer with 10 points and Iosefa Letuli had eight points and 13 rebounds to round out Kaimuki's top contributors.

The Bulldogs were without Jeremiah White (18.6 points per game) in the contest. He suffered a knee injury in practice earlier in the week.

Reach Michael Lasquero at [email protected].