Kamehameha's Makoa Camanse-Stevens (11) goes up for a shot as Punahou's Kupono Fey (32) defends. Brandon Ching | SL

Purchase image 1 of 3

Nick Velasquez (23) swings up a layup against Kamehameha. Brandon Ching | SL

Purchase image 2 of 3

Kamehameha's Austin Gerard (30) takes a shot over a Punahou defender. Evan Asato | SL

Purchase image 3 of 3

Fri, Feb 8, 2013 @ Kamehameha

---

Punahou

38

Kamehameha

39

Final	1	2	3	4
Punahou (8-4, 22-8)	8	10	8	12	38
Kamehameha (7-5, 14-8)	13	6	13	7	39

A. Gerard 13 pts  1 3pm  4/8 FTs

K. Fey 16 pts  4/4 FTs

In the ILH regular season finale, Kamehameha weathered a late Punahou rally and came out victorious on their Senior Night, 39-38.

"For the seniors you always want to go out with a win, but for a team aspect it gives us a winning mentality heading into next week. Getting a 'W' under our belts against a very good team will definitely help us," said Kamehameha head coach Julian Nakanishi.

Kamehameha's main scorer, Makoa Camanse-Stevens struggled from the field and finished with 5 points, but his teammates picked up the slack, especially Austin Gerard. The speedy, defensive specialist picked up the slack and led the Warriors in scoring with 13 points. Also senior Kody Chai added 10 points off of putback layups.

"Tonight wasn't a good shooting night for me, but they all stepped up and I'm so proud of them. Austin [Gerard] picked it up tonight and my teammates deserve all the credit," said Camanse-Stevens.

"We have been trying to drill it into him (Gerard) that he needs to help out with the scoring load. It's not always about Makoa, so he has to take the opportunity and put the ball in the hole for us," said Nakanishi.

In the first quarter, Kamehameha went up 8-2 thanks to a three and a steal and layup from Gerard and Punahou called timeout with 5:07 remaining. Gerard scored 7 of his 13 points in the first quarter. "Coach always encouraged me to shoot. I thought of my role and I was the defensive guy so shooting wasn't really my strength, but he believes in me," said Gerard.

Despite a sluggish first quarter, Punahou came back in the second quarter and cut the deficit to 1 after Dayson Watanabe hit a floater from the right baseline prompting Kamehameha to call a full timeout at 6:22. Punahou took the lead after a three pointer from Jordan Tanuvasa. Gerard found an open Kody Chai under the basket to tie it up at 15. Watanabe hit a three pointer at the top of the circle to put the Buffanblu up, 18-15. Kamehameha scored four points to end the quarter, to take a slim 1-point lead going into halftime.

In the third quarter, both teams traded baskets. Punahou's Nick Velasquez had a nice reverse layup to bring Punahou within 2, 26-24. The layup was the only basket Velasquez scored in the game. Gerard hit a fadeaway jumper and Noa Sua-Godinet blew by his defenders in transition and scored a layup to give the Warriors a 6 point lead going into the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Warriors went up 8 after a putback layup by Chai. Punahou answered back with 6 straight points, 4 coming from Kupono Fey. He finished with16 points and scored 8 of them in the fourth quarter rally.

Gerard hit another jumper to put Kamehameha up, 36-32. Fey answered back with a point blank layup set up by a pass from Justin Kam to make it 36-34.

Camanse-Stevens put the Warriors up 3, 39-36 after making 1 out-of 2 free throws. On the next possession, Punahou's Watanabe stole the inbounds pass and laid it up to make it 39-38.

After the ball was batted around, Punahou ended up with the ball with 11.7 seconds remaining. Velasquez had an open look and launched a three from the right corner, but it bounced off the back rim. Gerard grabbed the rebound to secure the victory.

"The last two games we came out flat and we need to pick it up. They (Kamehameha) are a great team and super difficult to beat at home. We had a chance to win it and we had a wide-open shot, but it didn't fall tonight," said Punahou head coach Darren Matsuda.

"Coming off that losing streak where we lost to 'Iolani, Punahou and Maryknoll, we were down, but going into tonight we wanted to finish strong," said Kody Chai.

Next week, Kamehameha will host Mid-Pacific in the opening round game of the ILH tournament. If they win, they will get to play Punahou again on Wednesday.

"Next week is going to be a war. There are four or five teams that are definitely state-worthy, but unfortunately two get in. But that's the way it is. It will be exciting and there will be a lot of good basketball," said Matsuda.