With the world at war following the Pearl Harbor attack, Saint Louis and Farrington’s boys teams had their own battles on the basketball court.
On this day in 1943, the Crusaders stole an 18-17 thriller from McKinley and The Governors beat Kamehameha 35-14. That set up a winner-take-all matchup three days later.
McKinley led Saint Louis 10-8 at halftime before the Cardinals leaned on Henry Van Giesen to make the difference. Van Giesen hit a free throw with two minutes left to tally the winning points and both teams were shut out the rest of the way.
Van Giesen scored 10 of his club’s 18 points and Ray Wong added seven. Tom Inafuku led the balanced Tigers with five points.
Just as Saint Louis needed to come back to reach the final, so did Farrington. Kamehameha led 10-9 at the half before Bert Itoga‘s lads came on after the break. Farrington’s Joe Tom led all scorers with 14 points and Tom Okamoto added 10. Barry Ontai paced Kamehameha with eight points and Howard Benham contributed five.
Itoga’s Governors won the Interscholastic title in another close one, beating Saint Louis 23-21 at the Civic Auditorium despite trailing 10-4 after the first quarter and holding a slim 12-11 lead at the half.
Okamoto led the champions with 10 points with Saburo Shimamura tallying 10 and Tom adding four. Van Giesen led Saint Louis with seven points and Richard Lum added six.
Farrington won the title by beating McKinley, Kamehameha and Saint Louis in succession. Saint Louis handed Farrington its only loss during the regular season.
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