Punahou's Dayson Watanabe breaks away for a layup against Kalani. Greg Yamamoto | SL

Purchase image 1 of 3

Kalani's Dallas Asuncion looks to drive to the basket against Punahou. Greg Yamamoto | SL

Purchase image 2 of 3

Punahou's Danny Andrews puts up a shot attempt against Kalani. Greg Yamamoto | SL

Purchase image 3 of 3

Thu, Dec 5, 2013 @ Radford

---

Kalani

55

Punahou

76

Final	1	2	3	4
Kalani (5-6, 12-16)	12	17	14	12	55
Punahou (7-5, 22-5)	25	20	15	16	76

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

D. Andrews 18 pts  6/7 FTs

A. Tungpalan 10 pts  2 3pm  0/0 FTs

J. Kam 8 tot

M. Ma'a 5 ast

A battle of two high-paced offenses resulted in a Buffanblu victory in the first round of the Alegre tournament Thursday night.  Punahou's Daniel Andrews scored a game-high 20 points to lead the team.

"It's a good win for us because we need to face different types of teams," Punahou coach Darren Matsuda said.  "(Kalani) is a team that is a high pressure team.  We need to be able to learn how to play against high defensive pressure teams and I thought we did pretty decent."

Starting Buffanblu point guard Dayson Watanabe was the catalyst of Punahou’s fast style of offense, really pushing the ball down the court on fast break situations to get easy buckets or to draw a foul.  Watanabe will be in the starting lineup fulltime, taking over for Jordan Tanuvasa who suffered a season ending ACL injury during the football season against Pac-Five.

"I'm really sad for Jordan getting injured; he's a big part of the team," lamented Watanabe.  "All I can do is step in and help the team out and do what needs to get done."

Kalani struck first, with Brandon Roberts finding Dallas Asuncion on the wing for the early triple.  It wasn’t till the 6:15 mark when Punahou got their first bucket to go.  Andrews’ basket and the foul help jumpstart the Buffanblu offense as they outscored the Falcons 25-7 in the rest of the first quarter. 

"Our defense really set the tempo for the game," Watanabe said.  "After the defense kicked in, the rest just came and the offense started clicking (together)."

The game appeared to be decided in the first quarter, but Kalani hanged around.  The second quarter was more evenly matched as Punahou only outscored the Falcons by three in the quarter.

"In this type of game, 10 to 15 points is a really close game," Matsuda said.  "They have good shooters, they're very quick, and they like to play the same style that we do.  Give them credit, they kept coming at us the whole game and it was a really good test of our conditioning." 

Kalani cut the deficet to 13 early in the third period, thanks to back-to-back triples by Alexander Tungpalan.  It would take another Andrews’ bucket to stymie the Kalani run and get the Punahou offense back in rhythm again. 

"I think I get a little more looks this year than I did last year," Andrews said.  "Dayson did a really good job finding me today, so did Micah (Ma'a)."

The first quarter deficit was too much for the Falcons to overcome as they eventually fell, 76-55.

Watanabe scored 17 points with three assists and two steals to compliment Andrews scoring ability.  Forward Blake Wade also chipped in, scoring 12 points off the bench. 

Punahou takes on Mid-Pac in the final game of the night Friday.  The Owls defeated the host Rams, 42-41, prior to Punahou and Kalani tipping off. 

Farrington 58, Pearl City 38

The Governors extended their winning ways on Thursday, knocking off Pearl City by twenty points in the early game of the first round of the Alegre tournament.  Farrington is now 2-0 in the preseason.

Jacob McEnroe did most of the scoring for the Govs, posting 20 points to push his scoring total for this week to 33.  Farrington’s Mason Semisi and Pumba Williams made their preseason debut in this game, after sitting out in the game against Waipahu Tuesday.  They scored seven and two points respectively.

Pearl City is learning to grow as a team, after nearly graduating half their team last season.  It’ll be an entirely different starting five for the Chargers if they want to make it back into the state tournament this year.  Eric Dela Pena led the Chargers with eight points and on three-pointer made. 

Leilehua 60, Roosevelt 41

The Mules rallied from a five point halftime deficit to blitz the Rough Riders in the second half.  The second half scoring was exceptional, with Leilehua outscoring Roosevelt 35-11 the rest of the way. 

Bryan Mason was a presence in the post for the Mules, scoring 14 points to lead the team.  Kainoa Aleviado also chipped in with 10 points.  The duo took advantage of opportunities at the line, never missing a free throw.

Chaston Marcos was the high scorer for the Rough Riders, garnering a game-high 15 points.  Junior Justin Furtado was also solid, finishing with 13 points with one three-pointer made.

Leilehua advances to play Farrington in the 6:00 p.m. game of the Alegre tournament Friday.  Roosevelt will play Pearl City on the other side of the bracket.  Tip off for that game is slated for 3:00 p.m.