Keoua Mahiko and the Cougars will host Dan Villejo and the Tigers Friday night in a battle of 7-1 teams in the OIA East. ScoringLive photo illustration

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A pair of teams that bookend this week's Hawaiian Electric/ScoringLive Boys Basketball Power Rankings will square off Friday in a regular-season clash with playoff seeding implications.

At least a share of first place in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Eastern Division I standings will be on the line when tenth-ranked McKinley (12-7 overall) visits No. 1 Kaiser (21-4).

Tip off is scheduled for 7 p.m.

The Tigers and Cougars bring identical 7-1 league records into the weekend and are tied atop the seven-team OIA East with fourth-ranked Kalaheo.

McKinley has won seven straight games since losing to the Mustangs, 46-35, in its regular-season opener on Jan. 2 and is coming off a six-point home win over Farrington Wednesday night.

"Although our morale is up we're trying to take it one game at a time and we understand that teams are getting players back from injuries, so we just want to stay balanced," Tigers coach Duane Omori said. "We don't want to get too high on the wins. We want to finish the regular season strong heading into the playoffs."

Huthifah Abdel Jawad (13.9 ppg in OIA East games) leads the team in scoring by a narrow margin over fellow senior guard Dan Villejo (12.7 ppg), but its 6-foot-5 junior center Mark Burke that has Kaiser coach Branden Kawazoe's attention.

"They have two of the top guards in the league in Villejo and Huthifah and their big man in the post is as good as any big man in the OIA," said Kawazoe, who led the Cougars to a Division II state title last year.

"He's got great touch around the him, he can use a jump hook over his left shoulder, he can finish with his left hand, he's got good touch from eight to 10 feet," Kawazoe said. "He's just a very, very skilled player, so with those three guys you've got to come ready and prepared."

Villejo is coming off an ACL injury and has played in just seven games this season, but had a season-high 19 points in a 16-point win at Castle last Thursday.

"We're happy to have Dan back," said Omori of the 6-foot sharpshooter. "Throughout the preseason we were missing guys here and there — including Dan — via injuries or other reasons, but every team went through this season not having people here and there for football, or recruiting trips or whatnot, so we just try to make the most of it."

Omori said a rigorous opening four-game stretch to the season (at Kalaheo, at Kailua, vs. Moanalua, at Kahuku) has paid dividends to this point.

"We were real fortunate to come out 3-1 after that week and I think right now we're riding the high morale that we're winning, but at the same time we understand that we've got to be mentally strong to maintain the effort and energy each game," Omori said. "We're still trying to find our way of playing together and building chemistry and I think many of the kids throughout that first week bought into the system and so for us, that's made a big difference."

Meanwhile, Kawazoe's team is coming off its first loss of the regular season with Tuesday night's 62-58 overtime defeat at Roosevelt. It snapped a seven-game winning streak for Kaiser.

"We've just got to play with more urgency," Kawazoe said. "We've come out flat in every single league game and we're going to have to make an adjustment and get back to the basics. No loss is ever good, but as long as you can learn something from it and make improvements and adjustments, then that's all that matters."

The Cougars played without senior forward Chance Kalaugher (19.4 ppg on year), who missed the game after an elbow injury in practice Tuesday.

"We were working on a drill and he went to dunk it, banged his elbow on the backboard and it split open so he had to get stitches," Kawazoe said. "We're still unsure about his status for Friday. It's hard to tell, but we're obviously a different team without him."

Still, Omori says the Cougars have a plethora of weapons without Kalaugher — a player of the year candidate.

"One of the big things about them is they've been together for a long time and they've played a lot of games with each other and grew up together so they have that ‘play-for-each-other' mentality," Omori said. "They're very deep and very strong. They're a top-three team in the state and they're fortunate in that they don't always have to play their best game to win because they all know their roles and I think that's what makes them so tough."

Mahiko, a senior guard, is averaging a team-best 18.7 points per game in league play. He netted a season-high 25 points in a six-point win over Kahuku on Jan. 12.

Kawazoe, however, would like to see more consistency from his team.

"When someone goes down everybody has to step up and we didn't do that (Wednesday) night," Kawazoe said. "We saw it in spurts but in order to beat a good team and a quality team like McKinley, we're going to have to put together 32 solid minutes. McKinley is playing really well, they're playing hard and it's going to be a battle for us. I'm looking forward to seeing how we bounce back. Hopefully we have a good practice (Thursday) and come out ready."