Hawaiian Electric Game of the Week
KS-Hawaii holds off Mid-Pacific, 34-31


  



Thu, Nov 30, 2017 @ Kaiser


Final 1 2 3 4  
KS-Hawaii (8-4, 16-4) 12 118334
Mid-Pacific (2-9, 8-13) 9 8 5 931
B. Kovaloff 13 pts  2 3pm  3/6 FTs
S. Aganus 9 pts  3/4 FTs
C. Lindbo 6 tot
D. Pacheco 1 ast

HAWAII KAI — A balanced offense and a stingy defensive effort paved the way for Kamehameha-Hawaii's 34-31 win over Mid-Pacific in a preseason game at the Cougar Showdown Thursday afternoon at Kaiser's Ted Fukushima Athletic Complex.

Saydee Aganus scored a team-high nine points, Jordyn Mantz seven and Dominique Pacheco six to pace the Warriors (4-0).

Brilie Kovaloff scored seven of her game-high 13 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Owls (4-3).

The game was a rematch of February's Division II state championship game, in which Mid-Pacific cruised to a 63-38 win.

This one was a different story.

The Warriors maintained the lead for all but a few seconds early in the game, and led by as many as 12 late in the third quarter.

The Owls got to within 31-22 following a Kovaloff 3-pointer from the left corner with one minute and 45 seconds left in the third. Kovaloff scored 10 straight points for her team during a 12-2 run over a span of more than eight minutes.

Caylina Lindbo's layup with 1:13 to play cut the Kamehameha-Hawaii to just 33-31.

Kamehameha-Hawaii senior guard Saydee Aganus gets past Mid-Pacific's Brilie Kovaloff for a layup in the first quarter. Michael Lasquero | SL    Purchase image

The Owls had a chance to tie it with 39.2 seconds left, but Zannah Suehiro missed a pair of free throws. However, McKenzie Kalawaia missed the front end of a one-and-one on the other end and Mid-Pacific regained possession with 24.8 seconds remaining.

Suehiro eventually had another chance to tie it, but her open shot from four feet away was short and the Warriors grabbed the rebound.

Aganus was fouled and hit one of two free throws with 1.7 seconds to play and the Owls were unable to get a shot off before the final buzzer.

In the days leading up to the matchup, Warriors coach Weston Willard spoke about his team's eagerness to erase the bad taste left in their mouth from last season's state final.

"It's just a testament to their resiliency, the seniors coming back, and I think that it really feels good to get this quality win against a good team like Mid-Pac and we're hopefully going to be able to use this as a good starting off point for our regular season," Willard said.

The key was playing hard-nosed defense, Willard added.

"I think both Saydee and Camille (Poe), when we went into full deny, (Mid-Pacific) really had trouble adjusting to that and I think that was just effort and intensity, and I think that was really what kept us in the game was our defense," Willard said.

Poe added four points, while Hera Salmeron and McKenzie Kalawaia contributed three apiece, and Taylor Sullivan chipped in two. Seven of the Warriors' eight players scored.

"What's interesting is we have five players that can flat out score, so it's just about the mismatches and who should we go to," Willard said. "Today, Saydee had a mismatch early and we were able to take advantage of that. They had a hard time with our post players, and then they sink off them and Jordyn can hit 3s. I mean, we've got a lot of weapons and I expect it to be pretty balanced. Every night we have a different player that can step up for ten, twelve points."

The other side of the coin, however, is a lack of depth due to just three bench players being available.

"There was definitely fatigue," Willard said. "We have a short bench and we put everything we had out there. You know, a team like Mid-Pac demands your best and I felt like today we were able to show our real team, who we are with our full potential, so it was good to be able to compete and I thought that our defensive intensity, and really our ability to ability to execute when needed on offense, our press-break was solid, we missed a few layups here and there, we didn't get rattled, but it was a good game."

It was also the second game in less than 24 hours for Kamehameha-Hawaii, which might have played a part in a 5-for-14 effort at the free-throw line.

"You should call them ‘paid throws' today, because they sure weren't free," Willard said. "You know, in the preseason it happens, especially with the intensity of defense, the amount of effort that we extended on both sides of the court and that kind of showed up at the free-throw line."

The Owls also struggled at the line, where they shot 4 of 15, including just 3 of 13 in the second half.

Mid-Pacific coach Sherice Ajifu said the tempo of the game was slower than she would have liked.

"That was a little bit of our fault as a staff. We would have liked to see a quicker pace that we saw in the fourth quarter, kind of get them on their heels a little bit more, but we didn't put the girls in the right position to do that in the first half," Ajifu said.

Coming into the tournament, Ajifu said there were still many question marks surrounding her squad, which is making the jump to the rigorous Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I this season.

"I think this game maybe opened up more questions," Ajifu said. "We're still trying to figure out roles. We're still trying to figure out what defense works for us best, but I think the girls did a good job of fighting back and just trying to create some chaos out there."

Ciera Kameehonua added eight points for the Owls.

Kamehameha-Hawaii led at halftime, 23-17.

Both teams return to action Friday. KS-Hawaii will play Kamehameha-Kapalama II at 3 p.m., while Mid-Pacific takes on Castle at 6 p.m.

Other Cougar Showdown games Friday include Punahou-Kaiser at 4:30 p.m. and Saint Francis-Kapolei at 7:30 p.m.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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