KEAAU —Darius Olloway was back, but Kamehameha simply couldn’t handle Kahuku’s athleticism, particularly the size and speed of the OIA visitors, on the basketball court.
The Red Raiders smashed the Warriors 62-37 in the first round of the Division I state tournament on Monday at Koai’a gym, where a 20-6 third-quarter explosion turned a somewhat manageable 11-point deficit into a 25-point unbearable one.
Olloway, a 6-foot-4 senior forward, missed the BIIF championship loss to Hilo with a sprained ankle. But he posted ordinary stats: eight points on 3 of 6 shooting and eight rebounds in 19 minutes.
Logan Watterson scored nine points on 3 of 11 shooting, Braedy Yamada added seven points on 3 of 10 shooting, and Nixis Yamauchi had five points on 2 of 8 shooting for the Warriors (8-3), who shot 26%, including 3 of 22 from 3-point range and made 8 of 13 free throws.
Amari Westmoreland-Vendiola, a 6-3 senior guard, scored 20 points on 8 of 11 shooting, and Denzon Seui-Sika, a 6-4 senior forward, added 12 point on 6 of 6 shooting for the Red Raiders, who shot 47%, including 4 of 14 from long distance and made 6 of 11 free throws.
Westmoreland-Vendiola doesn’t play football, but Seui-Sika was a 6-4 and 245-pound defensive lineman for the Open Division state champion Red Raiders. Westmoreland-Vendiola looks like a wide receiver or safety, a typical body frame for most of the Red Raiders.
The Warriors have good team height but look the part of a hoopster, long and lean, but not built for the physical grind of brutal work on the boards. The Red Raiders only outrebounded them, 36-34.
Kamehameha struggled against Kahuku’s length in the paint and couldn’t dribble-penetrate to create mismatches. Even worse, the Warriors turned the ball over 19 times and had just five assists.
The Red Raiders had better ball movement and finished with 15 turnovers and nine assists.
The Warriors’ best ball-handlers kept trying to force entry passes that got caught in the long arms of the Red Raiders (13-2), who play No. 1 seed Saint Louis (11-2) in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
BIIF champion Hilo (8-1) plays Iolani (10-4) at 5 p.m. in the quarterfinals on Thursday at McKinley High on Oahu.
Kaleb Guerrero had six turnovers and one assist. Watterson had five turnovers, and Yamauchi had four turnovers and one assist. The good news for Kamehameha is that Guerrero is a sophomore, and Yamauchi is just a freshman.
The Warriors lose three senior starters: Olloway, their only tall player for the foreseeable future; Yamada, the offense’s best shooter, and Watterson, who turned up his defensive intensity in the second half and forced three steals.
Kamehameha coach Mea Wong understands there’s a Grand Canyon-sized gap between BIIF play and the best teams in the state. Kahuku was a hard reminder of that.
“If you don’t have a 12 next to your name as in your grade level, then the offseason starts tomorrow,” he said. “We have to close the gap between the rest of the state, and the only way to do that is put the extra work in. Other than that, it was a good year. I’m proud that we didn’t give up. We fought the very end.
“Kahuku has size and speed. We haven’t played against anyone with that type of size and that type of athleticism. But it was good for our young guys to experience that. They cover ground and move faster than we’ve ever seen.”
After Olloway scored on a putback to cut Kahuku’s halftime lead to 29-18, the Red Raiders opened the third quarter with a furious run.
They converted a pair of putbacks and two straight 3-pointers during a 13-2 run to push ahead 42-20 with under two minutes left in the third quarter.
The last 3-pointer was a good example of how height helps in basketball. The Warriors trapped a Red Raider in the corner, but he passed out of the double team to his outlet. Westmoreland-Vendiola caught the ball on the right wing and drained an uncontested 3-ball.
The 6-3 senior guard dropped an uncontested layup when he beat the defense down the court to close the third quarter with Kahuku ahead 49-24.
In the fourth quarter, Wong emptied his bench to get all his Warriors in the game.
After the game, Wong knew the Warriors were close once in 2008. That year, Punahou edged Kamehameha 41-38 for the state championship. Those Warriors — Hogan Rosehill, Kealoha Kramer, Isaiah Kekaualua, Russell Kackley, and Colton Collins — weren’t tall like the Buffanblu, but they grew up playing ball together.
“It’s Kobe Bryant. You’ve got to put in work,” Wong said. “If you’re not as tall or as fast, but if you work more hours than they work, it’s the only way you can close the gap.
“I told them after the game, it’s a make or miss game. We got a lot of shots we wanted in the first half. We shot a lot of open 3s. If we make some of them, the scoreboard reflects a little differently. But we’ve got to put in the work, get in the weight room, get in the gym, work on skill development. That’s really it.”
