Boys Basketball
Cheng's putback lifts Kahuku into OIA title game


 



KAKAAKO—Right place, right time.

Oscar Cheng cleaned up the miss and his putback underneath the basket gave No. 4 Kahuku a 59-58 win over No.6 Leilehua in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I semifinals at McKinley's Student Council Gymnasium Monday.

Cheng finished with a double-double with 16 points and 15 rebounds, Lokana Enos added 14, and Robbie Sauvao contributed 11, as the Red Raiders seek their first league title since 2017.

Standing in their way is defending league champion Moanalua and Kahuku dealt Na Menehune a 63-60 loss back on Jan. 2. Tip off is scheduled after the Division II matchup between McKinley and Roosevelt concludes.

After Leilehua's Bernard Tobias missed the first of a one-and-one attempt, the Red Raiders got the ball back. Amari Westmoreland-Vendiola missed the jumper, but Cheng was all alone on the left block as he grabbed the ball and put it back with 1.8 seconds remaining on the clock.

"If he missed it, which he did, we wanted to attack and not call a timeout and let them set up. So we were able to attack with the guards out and I thought he got fouled, but lucky thing we had Oscar underneath the basket to clean it up," Kahuku coach Brandyn Akana said of the final sequence.

Leilehua's desperation inbound heave was batted around as Kahuku escaped with the narrow win.

"They're (Leilehua) a good team, they speed it up. They want to go up and down. We hung in there and grinded it out and finish at the end," Akana said.

Landyn Jumawan led a trio of Mules in double figures with 17, Tobias with 14 and four triples, and Aviel Palmer with 10 in the loss.

"Aviel, the whole season we tell him to play big. Sometimes he doesn't play as big as he really can, but he came through at times and did a tough job on Oscar. It was great to see other guys stepped up because we lean on Landyn for a lot of the scoring. Other guys have to step up at times and they did tonight," Leilehua coach Chad Townsend said.

Kahuku made it a 10-2 game early on as Sauvao swished two threes and Enos got in transition for a layup forcing an early timeout from Leilehua.

Landyn Jumawan and Logan Lasell made it a two point game with two triples. Kahuku started pulling away as Sauvao hit his third 3-pointer in the quarter and led, 19-14 after the first period.

"I'm proud, they punched us in the face early and they got up on us. A lot of teams check out but our guys stuck around and made a great effort," Townsend said.

The Mules got the deficit down to four twice until Lasell hit a 3-pointer from the right wing off a kick out pass from Tobias to cut it down to one. Leilehua went up by one after Davon Newman went up and under, but that was short-lived as Loren Nakauciri answered with a layup. There were three lead changes until Shon Reid cleaned up his own miss to tie the game at 31 at halftime.

Kahuku went to Cheng who got to work in the paint helping the Red Raiders open up the quarter on a 9-1 run. Enos converted an inbound pass from Sauvao to put Kahuku up 10.

"We relied too much on outside shooting. We're a team that we need to go inside, out. That's what we teach and we wanted to get him going. He played okay, but he could've done better. We were able to pull it off in the end," Akana said of Cheng.

Jumawan hit his second 3-pointer as the Mules but the Red Raiders kept them at bay with an eight point lead heading into the final period.

Tobias sparked Leilehua's offense with a 3-pointer from the left corner and then drained another on the wing to trail by two with 6:19 left. Kahuku went up four on Westmoreland-Vendiola's free throws, but Tobias dialed in from deep again.

"Bernard really helped us open up the offense and get them out of the zone. He made them pay for going into the zone and he's one of the best shooters on the team. That's why we put him out there and he did his job," Townsend said.

The scrappy Mules' defense created turnovers and used it to their advantage in transition as RJ Olivas made the layup off a steal and Aviel Palmer drew the block on Enos then completed the 3-point play to give Leilehua a 54-53 lead.

"We have to do a better job," Akana said of taking care of the ball. "They hit a lot of threes and they're a good shooting team. We did our thing and held them at the end and were able to get the fast break."

"We knew if we played too much of a half court game, they were going to bang us inside. We wanted to speed up the game and make the big guys run and tire them out," Townsend said.

The Mules clung onto a three point lead as Jumawan split the free throws and he had a steal and layup to make it, 58-55. Cheng had another putback to bring Kahuku within one and Leilehua was able to drain 41.3 seconds off the clock before the Red Raiders fouled Tobias.

The Mules were 4 for 12 (33.3 percent) from the charity stripe while the Red Raiders were 7 for 11 (63.6 percent).

Leilehua will host Kalaheo for third place at 6 p.m. All teams clinched spots in the state tournament starting on Feb. 17.

Geremy Robinson (right) poured in 25 points to lead Moanalua back into the OIA title game. Greg Yamamoto | SL    Purchase image

Moanalua 59, Kalaheo 51

Geremy Robinson got to the rim often and at will as he dropped 25 points to push No. 8 Na Menehune past the No. 3 Mustangs to avenge a regular season defeat back on Jan. 11.

Moanalua got 10 points off the bench from Bryant Abalos and Elijah McGruder and DiAeris McRaven each hauled in seven rebounds.

Na Menehune went up by as much as 16 in the second quarter on Nainoa Kauhola's 3-pointer and led 33-20 at halftime.

Kalaheo outscored Moanalua in the third quarter and got the deficit down to six on Luke Pardini's 3-pointer and trailed by six entering the fourth quarter.

The Mustangs continued to play catch up and would get within four twice in the fourth, but could not get any closer. Moanalua went 4 for 7 from the free throw line in the final 48.5 seconds to pull away.

Andrew Jones led Kalaheo with a double-double 18 points and 11 rebounds, Luke Pardini with 11 points, eight boards, and Kanoa Smith with 10 points, five rebounds.



Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].




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