Girls basketball

There was a point early in the second quarter of the Division II state championship game with Sacred Hearts when the Hawaii Baptist ohana held their collective breath. With 5:42 left before halftime, Joey Lin went down and stayed down. The arena went dead silent. “The injuries to us happened all season long,” HBA coach Robin Yamaguchi said. “So our thought was Alyssa Young has to step up again.” The Eagles were ready. After weeks of ups, downs, injuries and […]

‘Iolani and Konawaena dominated the all-tournament selections at the Heide & Cook/HHSAA Girls Basketball Division I State Championships. Raider senior Jovi Lefotu was voted most outstanding player. Against Maui, the versatile floor leader had 10 points on 5-for-9 shooting from the field, 15 rebounds, two assists and two steals. In a semifinal win over Campbell, Lefotu had 16 points (5-for-12 from the field), eight rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block. In the championship game against Konawaena, Lefotu had […]

There was a point during the first half of the ‘Iolani-Campbell semifinal game when Dean Young was despondent. Head bowed, hands on his forehead while sitting on the bench. Processing. “I was thinking, can we stop putting them on the free-throw line? Over and over and over again. It was frustrating,” Young said after the Raiders’ 54-39 win. “It just kills the flow of the game to blow the whistle so many times.” It was a game-long grind against a […]

The game was over and the Lady Lunas of Lahainaluna were mingling with each other and family members who made the flight over to Oahu. Lahainaluna advanced to the semifinal round of the Heide & Cook/HHSAA Girls Basketball State Championships with a 49-36 win over Punahou. But some time during the post-game decompression stage, Chaland Pahukoa had a moment. The talented junior guard had just scored 12 points, including two huge 3-pointers in the third quarter to help the Lunas […]

Officially, the first basket of the Konawaena-Mililani state quarterfinal game was recorded at “8:00.” It was actually 7:56, according to longtime hoops fan Frank Mauz. The former Advertiser sportswriter has been at girls basketball state tournaments as a reporter or spectator since its inception by the HHSAA in 1977. Konawaena’s flash-quick guard, Kaliana Salazar-Harrell, hauled in the opening tip and within seconds, the Wildcats were up 2-0. If it stays officially 8:00 of the first quarter as the time of […]

The Division I bracket of the Heide & Cook/HHSAA Girls Basketball State Championships followed the code. In D-II, all heck broke loose. Every seeded team went down. Top-seeded ILH champion Damien lost to rival Sacred Hearts, 62-53. Second-seeded Hawaii Prep fell to Hanalani, 51-50, on a basket by the Royals’ Rylee Matsuda with 4 seconds remaining. Third-seeded Kauai lost to Hawaii Baptist, 34-29. Fourth-seeded Kailua lost to MIL champion Seabury Hall, 49-36. That chaos sets up the semifinal round at […]

It’s a strange, fascinating world of basketball when the boys playoffs in the OIA and ILH converge with the start of the girls state tournament. If you’re old enough to remember when the girls hoops season flourished in the spring, playing entire days (plural) of the state tourney in the Stan Sheriff Center, you probably miss being able to see high-level boys and girls basketball from November to May. Basketball returned, and some say it should never have left last […]