Moanalua's Jamaal Willis drives to the basket against Kamehameha. Kristen Izumigawa | Special to SL

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Kamehameha's Noa Kinimaka glides to the basket for a shot attempt against Moanalua. Karina Nago | Special to SL

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Kamehameha's Jaycob Smith puts up a floater against Moanalua. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Moanalua's Charles Johnson-Maverick attempts to drive past the defense of Moanalua's Alaka'i Freitas. Kristen Izumigawa | Special to SL

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Kamehameha's Alaka'i Freitas goes up for a rebound against Moanalua. Karina Nago | Special to SL

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Kamehameha's Kayson Smith-Bejgrowicz and Alaka'i Freitas go up for a tandem block of shot attempt by Moanalua's Aaron Stuart. Jim LeBeau | Special to SL

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Fri, Dec 13, 2013 @ Moanalua

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Kamehameha

56

Moanalua

47

Final	1	2	3	4
Kamehameha (6-6, 18-10)	9	15	13	19	56
Moanalua (10-5, 17-12)	11	18	10	8	47

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

J. Willis 15 pts  1 3pm  2/2 FTs

F. Sua-Godinet 17 pts  2 3pm  5/10 FTs

C. Johnson-Maverick 6 tot

A. Freitas 13 tot

J. Willis 2 ast

F. Sua-Godinet 2 ast

On the final night of the Moanalua OIA/ILH Challenge, coach Greg Tacon topped his former team, 56-47. At the helm of Moanalua for seven seasons, he built the program and guided them to six state tournament appearances and back-to-back O'ahu Interscholastic Association Red titles. Tonight he stood on the other bench as Kamehameha-Kapalama's head coach.

"The only time it felt is when we went to the home locker room last night and it threw me back a bit. I communicate with the kids on their team enough that they know how much I care about them and my team here knows that even though I care about those guys it's all about what we're doing here so as cool as it is to come back and play them and to go against Byron as a good friend, the major focus is our team," said Kamehameha-Kapalama coach Greg Tacon.

The Na Menehune took the 8-2 lead after an Antoine Hines basket. Hines scored 7 points of the team's 11 points in the first quarter.

Kamehameha rallied to tie the game at 17 after a rebound and put back from Jordan Paulo. Kapu Mau made 1-of-2 to give the Warriors their first lead of the game. However, the Na Menehune outscored the Warriors 10-6 to close out the second quarter and Elo Badua hit a three pointer near the top of the arc just before buzzer sounded.

Antoine Hines and Jamaal Willis combined for 23 points to lead the Moanalua at halftime.

Moanalua had to deal with foul trouble in the second half. Hines picked up his fourth foul with a little over 6 minutes in the third quarter and fouled out at 1:13 in remaining in the fourth quarter. Aaron Stuart fouled out and Charles Johnson-Maverick had four. Sua-Godinet was fouled on a three point attempt and made 2-of-3 free throws with no time remaining to bring the Warriors within 2, 39-37 heading into the fourth quarter.

The Warriors used an 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter. Noa Kinimaka caught fire hitting a three pointer from the left corner and the top of the arc forcing Moanalua to use a full timeout at 6:51. Jaycob Smith passed it to Sua-Godinet for another score and the Na Menehune used another full timeout to talk it over.

"We're still trying to find an identity so what we're about. We did some things in the fourth quarter that we haven't done in the past and we put a little bit more pressure on the ball and try to create some turnovers. I'm more of a control defensive coach rather than a pressure defensive coach. That was good because I know they can do it because that's what they did in the past," said Tacon.

The Warriors closed out the game and outscored the Na Menehune 11-8. Fatu Sua-Godinet led the team in scoring scored 8 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter. Jaycob Smith also added 14 points and Alaka'i Freitas had 8 rebounds.

"I'm happy we're able to stick together when everything we do is coming up short. We're getting to the basket, we're taking good shots, we're not making them and getting discouraged but for us to beat a good team in Moanalua so we're extremely pleased to move on to the next challenge. I wish we could practice more, we're going to get practices next week before the 'Iolani Classic and we're trying to learn from each other, how we communicate and who can do certain things and certain times and the past three days we learned a lot," said Tacon.

Jamaal Willis finished the game with 15 points and Antoine Hines scored 13 points. Elo Badua also added 9 points.

Both teams will be playing in the 'Iolani Classic next week, Kamehameha takes on Westchester from Los Angeles, CA and Moanalua will play Hamilton from Milwaukee, WI.