By KEVIN JAKAHI
By KEVIN JAKAHI
Tribune-Herald sports writer
KEAAU — Give Tolby Saito and his fellow Pahoa long-distance shooters breathing room, and they’ll make you pay with 3-point daggers.
Bring a ton of full-court pressure with timely traps and Pahoa’s inexperience (Saito is the only returning starter) starts leaking oil, especially if the ball is not in Saito’s hands.
The Daggers did everything right in one half and whole lot wrong in the next half, but prevailed over Kamehameha 58-47 in a Big Island Interscholastic Federation boys basketball game Wednesday night at Koai‘a Gym.
“We came out with energy in the first half,” Pahoa coach Marc Saito said. “It’s no secret that we haven’t had much effort. At practice, we told them you’re on your own in the first half.”
The first half went the way of the Daggers, who led 30-20 at the break, sank six 3-pointers and committed just two turnovers.
Tolby Saito scored 20 points, sinking four 3-pointers, all in the first half, to lead a balanced scoring attack for the Daggers (1-3), who followed their pattern with too many turnovers.
Actually, they had near flawless ball-security in the first half. In the second half, Kamehameha applied full-court pressure and threw sticky traps. Pahoa had 17 turnovers in the second half, for 19 total giveaways.
“We would always break down in every game. We had 31 turnovers against Konawaena. Against Hawaii Prep, we had 29 turnovers. They zone-trapped us,” Pahoa coach Saito said. “Against Kohala all game long, they full-court pressed us and we had 26 turnovers.”
But when the defense focused too much on Saito, who buried 6 of 6 free throws in the second half, other Daggers had open shots. Keinan Agonias, who had one 3-pointer, and Joel Rosario Jr. added 11 points, including two treys, each while Torrell Thomas had 10 points in the paint.
Pukana Vincent muscled his way for 18 points and Rylan Kiko scored 15 points, most coming under the basket, while Bayley-Allen Manliguis added eight points for the Warriors (2-2), who only turned up the defensive heat in the second half.
Here’s a disturbing stat for the Daggers: they took just five shots in the third quarter; the Warriors took 18. Pahoa had turnover problems but was saved by Kamehameha’s inaccurate aim all game long: 34 percent from the field (18 of 53).
The Daggers converted 50 percent from the floor (17 of 34), and somehow survived a shaky second half, watching their once-comfortable 10-point halftime lead whittle down to 39-36 with under a minute in the third quarter.
Kamehameha scored eight straight points, each time off a Pahoa turnover. The Daggers didn’t get the ball past half-court. Kiko started the run with a putback, Vincent scored off an inbound, Kiko scored off another inbound layup, and Vincent scored off another giveaway.
But Rosario drained a long jumper at the buzzer to give Pahoa a 41-36 lead heading into the fourth quarter, which saw Manliguis score twice on putbacks. That wasn’t really the problem; the bigger deal it was the third shot each time.
Still, despite the shaky play, one main reason the Daggers survived is because they buried free throws: 17 of 20, including 11 of 13 in the final eight minutes. Kamehameha was 10 of 12 from free throw line.
The Daggers often got trapped in corners and on inbound plays they caught the ball too close to the baseline or sideline, limiting passing options. But when they really needed a ball-handler to step up Saito drained precious seconds off the clock with his dribbling and savvy passing before double teams showed up.
Ahead 55-47 with 1:16 remaining, Saito milked seconds until Agonias was fouled with 46.3 seconds left. He buried both free throws, the Warriors kept missing on return trips down the court, and Rosario capped the scoring with a final free throw with 35.7 seconds to go.
“I called and talked to them and told them they had two choices,” Marc Saito said. “They could step up and handle the pressure or give up. They got offended by that, and we attacked once we got a gap down the sidelines.”
To start the season, Pahoa had a rough start out of the gate, facing Konawaena (71-61 home loss), Hawaii Prep (76-44 road loss) and Kohala (72-52 road loss). Each time, Saito was the leading scorer with 38, 18 and 20 points.
The season is still young, but there’s an increased emphasis on getting enough wins to reach the four-team playoffs. That’s because only the BIIF champion (winner of the tourney) will earn the league’s only automatic berth to the Division II state tournament.
The BIIF runner-up will host the Interscholastic League of Honolulu’s No. 3 team at a time and date to be determined.
Kamehameha has started much better, going up against Ka‘u (81-56 road win), Waiakea (64-58 road loss) and Honokaa (76-64 home win). In the first two games, Laa Manliguis led the Warriors with 25 and 27 points. He didn’t play on Wednesday.
Pahoa 10 20 11 17 — 58
Kamehameha 10 10 16 11 — 47
Hawaii Prep 73, Kohala 67: Kalan Camero scored a game-high 23 points in Waimea as Ka Makani held off the Cowboys to remain the only unbeaten team in Division II.
Justas Gecas had 19 points for HPA (4-0) and David Ovbagbedia added 13.
Kealen Figueroa and Mikala Jordan each scored 20 points for Kohala (3-1), which led 37-32 at halftime. Ryan Caravalho chipped in with 15 points.
HPA won the JV game 49-20.
Kohala 20 17 12 18 — 67
HPA 17 15 21 20 — 73
Honokaa 56, Ka’u 54: Cjay Carvalho’s 23 points helped carry the host Dragons to their first victory of the season.
Larry-Dan Al-Navarro led the Trojans (0-4) with 13 points and Alexis Alejo had 10.
Honokaa (1-3) led from the start and fought off a fourth-quarter run by Ka’u.
Honokaa won 65-60.
Ka’u 9 13 13 19 —54
Honokaa 17 14 15 10—56
Waiakea 47, Kelakehe 42: Bryson Ita scored 11 points as the Warriors (3-1) eked out a victory.
Keanu Tilfas’ 19 points paced the Waveriders (1-2), who lost their second straight tight home game to one of the teams considered a Division I favorite. Kealakehe fell to Konawaena 49-47 last Friday.
Keaau 53, St. Joseph 50: Isiah Segobia led all scorers with 14 points and the visiting Cougars held off the Cardinals.
Charles Belmes chipped in with 13 points for Keaau (2-2) and Edgar Ventura had 12.
Cole DeSilva finished with 13 points for St. Joseph (0-3), Edgar Barclay posted 11 and Ben Uhlmann had 10.
Tough games
The Kohala girls picked up an important win on Tuesday, beating Kealakehe 64-26 to remain tied atop the Division II standings with Honokaa (7-1).
It doesn’t get any easier for the Cowgirls (6-1), who travel to play Konawaena (7-0) on Friday. They host Kamehameha on Monday and Honokaa on Saturday in games that will likely shake up the standings.
The BIIF regular season champion earns the league’s first berth to the Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division II state tournament.
Last season, Kohala beat Hawaii Prep 44-23 in the league’s third-place game, returning to states for the time since 1991.