Kamehameha's Kobe Young puts up a shot in the post against Mid-Pacific Wednesday night. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Wed, Feb 8, 2017 @ Kamehameha

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Mid-Pacific

44

Kamehameha

50

Final	1	2	3	4
Mid-Pacific (2-9, 7-12)	10	10	10	14	44
Kamehameha (4-8, 16-14)	9	11	13	17	50

K. Young 25 pts  7/11 FTs

Z. Shepherd 15 pts  3/5 FTs

KAPALAMA HEIGHTS — In big games, big time players show up. And boy did Kamehameha's Kobe Young show up.

Young willed his way to 25 points, including 11 straight in the fourth quarter, in the Warriors' 50-44 win over Mid-Pacific in the opening round of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I single elimination tournament Wednesday afternoon.

Kamehameha (3-7), ranked eighth in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Boys Basketball Power Rankings, and unranked Mid-Pacific (2-8) came into the contest with each taking a game off of the other during the regular season. 

It was Mid-Pacific's Jacen Kimura who struck first however. Kimura's last shot in Kamehameha's Kekuhaupio Gymnasium was a game-winning dagger in early January and he picked up where he left off hitting a deep 3-pointer to give Mid-Pacific a 13-9 lead to open the second quarter. 

The Warriors' offense seemed stagnant to start, unable to penetrate against an effective zone defense by Mid-Pacific. 

"We know they're going to play a zone because they play zone really well," said Kamehameha coach Greg Tacon. "We put some new things in this week just so maybe we could get shots from different areas."

Those new things started to click towards the end of the second quarter as Kamren Victorino-Kato scored on two back-to-back jump shots before Young finished the half with a layup, tying the game at 20. 

The Warriors had momentum coming out of halftime. With each missed Mid-Pacific shot the home crowd grew louder. Kamehameha took advantage of the energy to capture its first lead of the night 25-24 at the five-minute mark of the third quarter off of a three-point play by Young.

"I mean, we're so young but there's a point and time where you've got to say it's our time," said Young. "So I thought, might as well make a statement now."

Kamehameha held a 33-30 advantage going into the final stanza, but the Owls weren't done yet. Kimura, who had missed five 3-point attempts in a row and had been relatively quiet since the first quarter, opened the fourth with a crowd silencing jump shot to tie the game at 33.  

Then it was Kobe's turn. 

Young started his scoring spree with two layups and a trip to the free throw line on three consecutive possessions, forcing a Mid-Pacific timeout. 

On the next Kamehameha possession, Young hit a midrange jumper and followed it up with two makes from the charity stripe. Mid-Pacific's Zion Shepherd stopped the run with a layup of his own, but Young responded with another jump shot to give his team a 44-37 lead with two minutes remaining.

"The ball kind of found him, you know, good players, the ball finds you in certain situations," said Tacon. "I mean we needed it. He missed a couple of those in the first half so I'm really proud of him and happy for him." 

Shepherd gave the Owls a chance by scoring in the post and bringing them within five with 1:45 to go, but Kimura mistakenly intentionally fouled Victorino-Kato before the ball was inbounded, resulting in two free throw attempts and Kamehameha maintaining possession.  

Despite poor free throw shooting down the stretch by the Warriors, the Owls were unable to score and gave up two consecutive offensive rebounds after missed free throws, effectively sealing the deal. 

Kamehameha moves on to play ILH regular-season champion Punahou at 6 p.m. Thursday at Punahou's Hemmeter Fieldhouse. 

Young is confident that he and his teammates will be ready for the challenge tomorrow night.

"Coach (Tacon) has a great game plan for us going to Punahou all the time. He coached there, so he knows he'll have us ready, and we'll be ready," said Young. "It's a big time game."

Tacon expects it to be another close game against the top seed. 

"You know, we played two games against them and both games were close in the fourth quarter," said Tacon "The first time they had more fire power than us and they kind of separated (themselves). The second, we stayed with them for the most part. For us, every game we've played in the ILH has been close and we expect another close one tomorrow, and hopefully, we win." 

Behind Young, Nakoa Pauole chipped in seven points for Kamehameha, while Victorino-Kato finished with six. 

Shepherd and Kimura led Mid-Pacific with 15 and 14 points respectively.