Brandon Ching | ScoringLive
February 18, 2015, 10:07pm
No. 3 Punahou pummels Kamehameha, 62-35
Punahou's Micah Maa puts up a shot against Kamehameha. Maa finished with a game high 12 points in the win over the Warriors. Tyler Guieb | SLA big first half helped Punahou rout Kamehameha, 62-35 in the semifinals of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu postseason tournament at Hemmeter Fieldhouse on Wednesday night.
The Buffanblu, ranked third in the ScoringLive/OC16 Power Rankings, improve to 10-1 ILH, 22-3 overall, and will play Iolani in the ILH postseason final on Friday, Feb. 20 at Hemmeter Fieldhouse at 6:30 p.m. The Warriors end their season at 3-9 ILH, 11-15 overall.
"It's been a tough year, we lost two starters and a third starter who got hurt and having to compete in our league which is really hard," said Greg Tacon. "When you go up against a team like Punahou with veteran leadership and the talent level is so high and they shoot the ball well as a group. The right team won tonight."
Multiple players from Punahou got involved offensively. Micah Maa came off the bench and led the way with 12 points, Jordan Tanuvasa chipped in 10 and JB Kam and Dayson Watanabe added eight each.
"When we have four or five guys scoring, then you can't key on one guy. I thought they played really well. I thought we had to bring our A-game tonight," said Matsuda.
Kamehameha kept it close in the first quarter as they traded baskets early. Noah Gelacio made a layup as the Warriors trailed 7-5. Punahou got consecutive 3-pointers from Tanuvasa and Kanawai Noa and started to pull away. The Buffanblu closed out on a 10-4 run to take a 17-9 lead going into the second quarter.
Dayson Watanabe scored five-straight points in an 8-2 run to start the second quarter. Kobe Young hit Kamehameha's only field goal in the quarter with over six minutes left and the Warriors went scoreless for four minutes until Jayden Zarriello hit two free throws with 59.7 seconds left. Akahi Troske's putback beat the buzzer as Punahou took a commanding 30-13 lead at halftime.
Noah Gelacio and Fatu Sua-Godinet added seven points each for the Warriors.
Kamehameha shot 14 of 36 (38.9 percent) from the field for the game while the Buffanblu shot 24 of 41 (58.5 percent) overall—16 of 22 (72.7 percent) from inside the arc and 8 of 19 (42.1 percent) from the 3-point line.
Punahou outscored Kamehameha 32-22 in the second half and both teams were able to empty out their benches.
"We've been doing that all year due to the injuries," said Tacon, on playing many players throughout the game. "If we get better it's because our kids are willing to work in the offseason so that's our whole goal in the offseason to get better."
Punahou beat Iolani twice this year— 55-47 on Jan. 17 and 40-32 on Feb. 3. The Buffanblu look to complete the season sweep to claim ILH title outright and a seeded berth in next week's state tournament.
"They are a very good team. Going against Dean (Shimamoto) is always a chess match and I'm sure he's going to have things we'll have to adjust for, but I expect it to be a dog fight on Friday," said Matsuda.
