Stacy Kaneshiro | SL

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Sat, Nov 28, 2015 @ Campbell

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Kalaheo

68

Campbell

36

Final	1	2	3	4
Kalaheo (12-2, 25-7)	15	19	15	19	68
Campbell (3-7, 6-17)	8	7	7	14	36

R. Knowles 7 pts  3/6 FTs

A. Kearney 17 pts  3/4 FTs

‘EWA BEACH – Alex Layi and Andrew Kearney combined for 34 points and Kalaheo rolled over host Campbell, 68-36, for the championship of the Saber Basketball Invitational Saturday night.

The Mustangs (4-0) trailed 8-3 after the first seven minutes of play before using a 23-0 run between the first and second periods to make it a blowout in taking the eight-team preseason tournament.

The Sabers (2-1), who returned only two players from last season's team that finished third in the state tournament, watched the Mustangs score seven points in the closing 24 seconds of the first period three successive turnovers in their back court.

Layi, who played for Campbell as a freshman before transferring to Kalaheo, scored 17 points, 11 in the first half. Kearney also had 17 points. Kekai Smith added 14 points for the Mustangs.

Although Kalaheo is the defending state champion, it has a different look. Rob Pardini is the new coach, succeeding Alika Smith, who resigned in the offseason, taking his 6-foot-5, sophomore son, Jalen, in the process. But it's not as if the cupboard was empty. Back are Kekai Smith, Alika's nephew, Layi and Kearney, a sophomore.

"For a young team, I think we're progressing right now," Pardini said. "We have a lot of underclassmen, sophomores, very few juniors, a couple seniors, so I think we're making some progress."

Although the team is new in terms of varsity play, the players Kalaheo labored at the start; its first three points of the game were from free throws. The Mustangs' first field goal came with 55 seconds left in the first period when Layi completed a three-point play that ignited the 12-0 run to end the quarter.

Campbell got its offense going momentarily on back-to-back 3-pointers by Zach Arata, one of the two returnees that gave Campbell a 6-1 lead. The Sabers went up 8-3 on Maunakea Medeiros-Matthews basket with a little over a minute left in the first quarter. But the Sabers weren't heard from again until 4:40 in the second period on Ethan Galisa's free throw. The Mustangs took a 34-15 lead into the half and never looked back.

One of Pardini's concerns is adjusting to the new hand-checking calls. Kekai Smith and Ryan Pardini both fouled out of the game.

"We're adjusting to how the Hawaii refs are calling the hand checks now, which is a big adjustment," Pardini said. "We have a challenge here to learn how to play that game. We fouled out two kids (in each of) the last two games."

Meanwhile, the Sabers appear to have a lot of work to get match last year's team's accomplishments. The team is inexperienced, including five first-year seniors.

"We have 11 new guys," Sabers' coach Wyatt Tau said. "We knew it was going to be a learning process for a lot of them. That's a good team (Kalaheo) we played; now we realize how hard we have to work. The kids understand….We're still lost, we're still confused. The 15 preseason games we have left will help this team grow."

Next weekend will be like boot camp, as the Sabers will play in simultaneous tournaments at McKinley and Kailua. It was arranged so Campbell would play earlier in the day in one and at night in the other, Tau said.

The Sabers graduated nine players from last year's team, but were supposed to have six returnees, but three transferred and one did not tryout, leaving Zach Arata and Maxwell Tupua-Tau.

Tau said that 5-9 and 6-1 posts Eron Flores and Eric Lautzenheiser, respectively, are showing promise among the first-year seniors.

Unlike last year, when the Sabers won the Taco Bell free-throw shooting challenge, Campbell is struggling at the line. The Sabers were 10 of 21 against Kalaheo.

"That's something we really have to work on," Tau said. "I think it was because we just didn't have legs, but we just have to work. Work on conditioning and work on focusing on what we have to do."