Boys basketball

Closing the Book: No. 1 Maryknoll (31-4, 10-2 ILH) > vs. Top 10: 21-4 (.840) > Top 10 wins: KAIS, KLH, MOA, KS, KAIL, EIS, HES, SANM, MPI, MPI, PUN, DMS, STL, STL, DMS, PUN, DMS, KS, KLH, DMS, KS > Top 10 losses: St. Francis (CA), KS, KS, KS > Non-Top 10 losses: None > Home: 10-1 > Away: 6-2 > Neutral: 15-1 Numbers don’t tell the whole story, but they tell us this: Maryknoll had a historic season. […]

Christmas Togiai leads the 2019-20 Star-Advertiser Boys Basketball All-State selections published in Sunday’s edition. Voted by coaches and media as player of the year, Togiai outpointed Niko Robben of Maryknoll. Kelly Grant, who guided Maryknoll to a second consecutive state championship, was voted coach of the year by the panel of coaches and media. Below are coaches’ comments on the Fab 15, as well as the list of All-Defensive team selections. 1. Christmas Togiai, Kamehameha 6-2, Sr. Near-unanimous selection as […]

Despite his season ending in the state semifinals with a serious knee injury, Kamehameha senior Christmas Togiai was named the ILH most valuable player in Division I today. Kamehameha’s Larry Park was named coach of the year. Below are the complete ILH basketball all-star teams as voted on by league coaches. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser All-State Fab 15 team will be released Sunday. Division I Most valuable player—Christmas Togiai, Sr, Kamehameha Coach of the year—Larry Park, Kamehameha FIRST TEAM Jake Holtz, […]

If only there was a time machine, Christmas Togiai Jr. would go back to that moment before the knee injury. It was a crucial play in a close game with Kamehameha ahead of Kahuku with less than 3 minutes left in the state-tournament semifinal round. Togiai drove the right side, as he had earlier in the game for a bucket, and collapsed. He left the game, returned with his knee wrapped up, but couldn’t finish. The Warriors won the game, […]

If you’ve never heard of Peniel Educational Ministries before, you aren’t the first. Zion Kese has spent countless time explaining the school he attends. He is also patient when he’s asked how to spell Peniel. “It’s like pen, which you write with, and ‘iel’. It’s just a small Christian school in Pearl City,” he said. Kese put his school on the basketball map on Saturday with a resounding performance at the Hawaii Senior Classic in Moanalua gym. The 6-foot-2 wing […]

There are a multitude of great plot lines following the OIA/public schools’ 94-87 comeback win over the ILH/private schools in the Hawaii Senior Classic on Saturday at Moanalua. The most surprising, though, is Elijah McGruder. Moanalua’s blue-collar banger was never the tallest or biggest, but he was often very effective in the paint as his team won the OIA title. But that was as a classic role player. On Saturday, McGruder exploded for 21 points and 10 rebounds, scoring 17 […]

Between the surgeries, from birth to sophomore year, from his heart to his ears, Malosi Viena has endured the improbable path to success.  It’s not just the 3.2 grade-point average — 3.7 this year — and the real possibility of playing basketball at RIT or Gallaudet University. It’s not the part-time jobs he keeps to enjoy his own spending money. It’s not even the 17-point scoring average just two years after suffering a head injury that displaced a cochlear implant. […]