Fri, Feb 27, 2015 @ Farrington

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Hawaii Baptist

32

Kalani

37

Final	1	2	3	4
Hawaii Baptist (10-2, 18-9)	4	16	10	2	32
Kalani (3-8, 11-17)	13	11	5	8	37

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

Alexander Tungpalan 11 pts  2 3pm  1/2 FTs

Isaac Liva 13 pts  3/4 FTs

Jeremy Robinson 8 tot  1 off  7 def

Isaac Liva 20 tot  4 off  16 def

Jaron Yamauchi 5 ast

BJ Hosaka 5 ast

Kalani's Jeremy Robinson takes the ball to the basket against Hawaii Baptist. Tyler Guieb | SL

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Kalani's Jeremy Robinson takes the ball to the basket against Hawaii Baptist. Tyler Guieb | SL

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KALIHI – For the second straight night — and the second year in a row — the Kalani Flacons took down a seeded team to reach the title game of the New City Nissan Division II Boys Basketball Championships. The victims Friday night were the champions of the ILH the Hawaii Baptist Academy Eagles at Kitamura Gym, 37-32.

"It's a great group of kids that they want it bad enough and their willing to do what it takes to get there," said Kalani coach Nathan Davis. "A lot of people say Cinderella all over again, but we never look at ourselves that way."

Kalani defeated the top seed in the tournament Pahoa of the BIIF Thursday night 57-52 to reach the semifinal matchup. In the win to Pahoa the Falcons lost one of their main big men in 6-foot-2 forward Juwon Bohannon to an ankle injury.

The Falcons jumped out early with a 7-0 run to start the game. The Eagles struggled offensively and found themselves on the wrong side of a 13-4 score at the end of the first quarter.

In the second period a crowd of about 300 were treated to a high scoring affair where Hawaii Baptist outscored Kalani 16-11 and went into the half only trailing the Falcons 24-20. With Bohannon's injury someone had to step up for Kalani and it came in the form of senior Jeremy Robinson who scored four of his eight points in the quarter. Robinson along with fellow senior Dunavan Hahn and junior Jon Suda took on the task of replacing Bohannon.

"Coach told me I was going to have my time and my boy Juwon told me to step up my game," said Robinson who finished the game with 8 points and 8 rebounds.

The third stanza saw a great defensive performance from the Eagles as they held Kalani to just five points in the quarter. Sophomore guard Ty Minatoya hit one of his two 3-pointers in the period to bring HBA to within one point with 6:53 in the quarter. Moments later junior Isaac Liva put in two of his 13 points to give the Eagles the lead for the first time. Liva had a double-double outing and finished with an astounding 20 rebounds and 3 blocks.

"We struggled to execute in the first half both offensively and defensively," said Hawaii Baptist coach George Weeks. "It took us about a half to figure out what we needed to do. We put ourselves in a little bit of a hole and we clawed our way back out of it. We were right there towards the end and a couple times the ball just didn't bounce our way.

The Eagles and Falcons went back-and-forth to end the quarter as Hawaii Baptist took a 30-29 lead into the final period

The early moments of the final quarter was a struggle for both teams as only one point was scored by HBA. Then at the 5:41 mark Falcons senior leader Alexander Tungpalan received a pass from Robinson and drained a three from the left wing.

"Usually I come out and try to stay aggressive because that's what my team needs from me, but if I see my teammates and they're stepping it up then I let them go and I do whatever my team needs from me," said Tungpalan who finished with 10 points, two 3-pointers, and 4 rebounds.

Kalani returned the favor on the defensive end and held the Eagles to just two points in the final period as Tungpalan put the game on ice from the free throw line.

"It's a credit to my players that they stuck together through the whole thing. We lost a whole bunch of games knowing that it would prepare us for these moments and I think that's a great life lesson that perseverance and resilience all pays off," said coach Davis.

The Falcons will face a familiar foe in Kaiser Saturday evening at 5 p.m. at the Stan Sherieff Center. The two have split the first two meetings of the year and Kalani will get a chance to avenge their lost to Kaiser in the OIA DII Championship game.  

Kalani will be looking for their first Division II State Championship.