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Kalani drew upon prior loss to clinch OIA title




In hindsight, a five-point loss on senior night was just what the Kalani girls basketball team needed to push it over the top.

The Falcons did well to learn from the disappointing loss to Moanalua on Jan. 9, which was evident in their performance in Wednesday night's 55-33 win over the same opponent — and the result was their first Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I championship since 2008.

Much like the first meeting, Kalani led Moanalua at halftime Wednesday. Unlike the previous game, however, it held on to that lead in the third quarter.

In fact, the Falcons outscored Na Menehune in the third quarter, 15-3. That was in stark contrast to the regular-season face off, when the Menes opened the second half with an 11-0 run and won the third quarter, 19-11.

Kalani coach Chi Mok said his halftime talk Wednesday centered around protecting the lead.

"I told the girls, ‘last game we had a lead going into the second half and in the third quarter we came out, we chucked up four 3's in a row and they were all misses,' and I told the girls that we don't need that this game because we had the same type of lead and we just had to work the clock, work the clock, work offense and we'll get better shots," said Mok, who on Friday was named OIA Eastern Division Coach of the Year.

Logan Luke certainly didn't need a reminder. The senior forward paid close attention Monday when Moanalua chipped away at a 12-point halftime deficit before eventually rallying for a 59-57 win in overtime over Kahuku.

"They were down by a lot and they came back and won, so we had to just make sure we built on that lead," said Luke, who scored 14 points in the win.

Despite Luke being plagued with foul trouble Monday, the Falcons were able to fend off previously-unbeaten Mililani, 47-45, to set-up Wednesday's rematch with Na Menehune.

Luke got off to a hot start against Moanalua, shooting 4 of 7 from the field and scoring eight points in a 28-point first quarter for Kalani. However, a pair of fouls limited her minutes in the second quarter.

"I got into foul trouble on Monday, too, so my biggest goal was to not get into it, but once they called two fouls on me I just had to stand up straight and if they scored, then they scored, but I just had to try and not get fouls," Luke said.

Luke went on to score six more points and was whistled for only one other foul.

"She came in in the second quarter and we told her to play smart, which she did," Mok said.

The Falcons mixed defenses with their press, but predominantly focused their efforts on slowing down the inside production of Menes 5-foot-10 center Delylah Sanerivi, who was coming off a 21-point effort against Kahuku Monday.

"(Tuesday) we practiced defense, defense, defense; being able to front her and if they lob it over, to have back side help and just being able to shut her down," Luke said.

With Sanerivi drawing most of the attention in the post, Moanalua had its share of looks at quality outside shots, but largely struggled. It was just 1 of 15 on 3-point attempts. The problem was further compounded by 15 turnovers, including 10 in the first half.

"We have games like that, where we have a lot of turnovers, but they're so used to being able to come back from that and I kept telling them that that's not going to happen because the good teams are not going to let us come back," Na Menehune coach Tani Almont-Done said.

Much like the regular-season loss to Moanalua did for Kalani, Almont-Done is hoping Wednesday's defeat at the hands of the Falcons will re-energize her bunch.

"Part of it may be fatigue. It feels like we've just been going and going and going, but there's no excuses; Kalani was ready. They're on fire, they were ready to go and we just couldn't bring it back in. Everybody's tired, but your mind has to take over and keep going and we just couldn't do that mentally."

Both teams will take part in next week's Snapple/HHSAA Division I State Championships on Oahu. Moanalua will host Kaiser in a play-in game at 6:30 p.m. Monday, while Kalani drew the No. 4 seed in the tournament and will open play at 5 p.m. Thursday against the winner of Waiakea and Campbell.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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