Kailua's Mason Youart splits a pair of Waianae defenders on his way to the basket. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Waianae's Jamal Lopez and Kailua's William Kailimai battle for a rebound. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Kailua's Kirk Renolo Jr. puts up a shot against Waianae. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Sat, Feb 16, 2013 @ McKinley

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Waianae

33

Kailua

48

Final	1	2	3	4
Waianae (7-5, 9-8)	6	3	7	17	33
Kailua (6-5, 17-9)	6	13	8	21	48

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

K. Ronolo Jr. 16 pts  4/9 FTs

J. Lopez 15 pts  1 3pm  2/3 FTs

K. Ronolo Jr. 7 tot

J. Lopez 5 tot

N. Auld 4 ast

J. Kila 4 ast

In his first season as the Surfriders head coach, Wally Marciel has brought home the first OIA boys basketball title to Kailua since 1982.

"I was at AOP for two years and I had an opportunity to come home and coach the kids in my area. They had to buy into the system and they did. All year we were telling them our message and our message to them message to them this year was, "we are together," said Marciel.

"It means a lot," said Kailua forward Kirk Ronolo Jr. who finished with a game high 16 points. "We know when we do the things we are good at, we can beat anybody. The last championship was in 1982 and now we can hang one of ours."

Mason Youart added 12 points and five steals for Kailua. He was aggressive and disruptive on the defense.

"The coaches prepared me and I just tried to do my part on the defensive end," said Youart.

"This is probably Mason's fifth game of the season because he broke his hand in the final preseason game. However, he's great with his hands, he has good hand-eye coordination, and gets tips. He works hard on that," added Coach Marciel.

It was a low-scoring first quarter, it wasn't pretty as both teams turned the ball over. This game had 46 total turnovers, 26 from Waianae and 20 from Kailua. Waianae went up 6-2 after a putback by Bronson Brown-Kaopua. Kailua got their first field goal almost 7 minutes into the quarter after Kirk Ronolo Jr. laid it up. Mason Youart's baseline drive tied it up at 6.

"I told the kids, it's hard when you take a week off. We tried to make practice exciting for them but you know, not playing anybody you look sluggish. At the end of the first quarter, I was happy how we ended it," said Marciel.

In the second quarter, Kailua found a rhythm on offense and went on a 6-0 run, prompting Waianae to call time out at 5:47.

After the timeout, Youart had a nice backdoor layup set up by Noah Auld to make it 14-6. Eventually Kailua would take a 10 point lead going into halftime, 19-9. Waianae did not make a field goal and scored all 3 of their points from the free throw line.

Coming out of halftime, Kailua continued to execute on offense and used an 8-1 run to go up 27-10. Players were cutting and getting open layups to the basket.

Coach Marciel said, "When Waianae came out and played us, that's our offense and we play a spread offense. We work on back and front cuts, they tried to take the ball away from us and we got easy buckets."

Waianae called a full timeout at 4:25. After the timeout, the Seariders went on a 6-0 run to close the quarter. Waianae's Justin Kila stole the ball and was fouled as he made the layup with 4.7 seconds left, but missed the free throw.

In fourth quarter, Ronolo Jr. put the Surfriders up 32-19 after a reverse layup. He scored 7 points in the quarter and made trips to the free throw line.

"I just work hard and everything falls into place from there. I get a lot of garbage points and it helps out," said Ronolo Jr.

"Kirk is our key player. He's also coming off an hand injury and all year we have been looking for him in the post," said Marciel.  

Kailua was up by double digits but Waianae managed to cut the deficit to 9, 40-31 after Jamal Lopez hit a pull up jumper in transition. However, Kailua closed out the game with an 8-2 run and several reserves checked in to savor the championship moment.

"It's been a while and words can't exactly describe it right now," said Mason Youart.

Jamal Lopez led Waianae with 15 points and hit three 3 pointers.