Farrington overpowers Pearl City, 62-55, advances to Red semis


Led by post Tyler Liana, Farrington outmuscled a guard-oriented Pearl City squad to advance to the semifinals of the OIA Red Tournament, 62-55.

The win also secured a state tournament berth for the Governors.

In the first quarter, Pearl City's Isaac Amorin scored an easy layup in transition and Farrington immediately called timeout, 48 seconds into the game. Farrington tried to force the ball into the paint and it led to many turnovers. Farrington head coach Allan Silva was not pleased with his team's play and called a full timeout at 6:11. It wasn't a pretty quarter as Farrington turned the ball over many times and Pearl City had too many missed shots.

"Well thank God they settled down because we had too many turnovers," said Silva.

Following the timeout, the Governors scored six straight points. Pearl City tied the game up after a steal and layup from Amorin. Farrington's Jacob McEnroe scored 7 of his team's 10 points in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Chargers tied it up at 12 after Reymart Rosario found Daicorri Briscoe for a layup. Pearl City took the lead after Rosario hit a three pointer to go up, 15-12. The Chargers extended the lead to 5 after Sonny Glisson stole the ball and found a streaking Rosario. Farrington clawed its way back to tie the game at 17 after a baseline jumper from Marco Cudia. Glisson had a steal and layup to put the Chargers up 19-17. However, Cudia hit a 3 pointer to give the Governors a 1 point lead going into halftime.

The third quarter belonged to Farrington's Tyler Liana. The senior forward was an unstoppable force in the post as teammates found him on the block and he made those point-blank layups. He scored 10 of his 17 points in the quarter.

"At first I started off slow. We were only up by 1 point going into halftime and as a senior, I didn't want to lose so I told our team to pick it up and we played harder. It was a team effort, if it wasn't for those our guards passing it in, I wouldn't have got those 10 points in the quarter. I was just being strong and smart underneath, knowing when to pump fake and when to go up," said Liana.

Farrington switched it up defensively and they played zone, forcing Pearl City to shoot long jumpshots. The Govs built a 12 point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

"We switched it up a little bit. We gave Tyler the ball and we made better passes," said Silva.

In the fourth quarter, Farrington maintained a double-digit lead for most of the quarter until Pearl City's caught fire from beyond the arc.

"I thought we played good defense overall in the game except that last couple minutes as Pearl City made a run and we didn't pick them up," said Silva.

The Chargers sank 7 three pointers, 4 by Glisson, 2 by Rosario and 1 by Briscoe. The Chargers whittled the deficit to 4 after Rosario's three pointer with over 1:30 remaining. However, Pearl City's shooting was not enough to overcome Farrington and at the end, the Govs made their free throws to put the game away.



Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].