Captain Whitlock leads Kalaheo into a preseason battle against Maninoa Tufono and Punahou in the 18th annual James Alegre Invitational. ScoringLive photo illustration

View image 1 of 1

---

Captain Whitlock leads Kalaheo into a preseason battle against Maninoa Tufono and Punahou in the 18th annual James Alegre Invitational. ScoringLive photo illustration

View image 1 of 1

---

Two teams with postseason aspirations will face-off in a highly anticipated preseason affair in the penultimate game of the 18th annual James Alegre Invitational Tournament Saturday night, when Interscholastic League of Honolulu member Punahou takes on defending Oahu Interscholastic Association champion Kalaheo.

The Buffanblu (2-0) will be facing their third OIA team in four days when they take on the Mustangs (2-1) at 6:30 p.m. at Radford's Jim Alegre Gym.

Punahou returns a seasoned lineup led by senior shooting guard Chris Kobayashi and sophomore Kaulana Makaula, but is dealing with knee injuries to both guard Cole Arceneaux and big man Jack-Eli Tufono.

"They both will be out for a while, Cole maybe the whole season," Buffanblu coach Darren Matsuda said.

Arceneaux, a wide receiver on the football team suffered an ACL injury in the fall.

"It would be pretty miraculous if he comes back, but he works hard and Jack not only an ACL injury, but a meniscus, too, so that takes a little bit longer to come back from," Matsuda said.

Punahou had no problems without the pair in wins over Moanalua (59-33) Wednesday and Farrington (64-33) Friday.

Fourteen players saw court time against Na Menehune, with all but one of them recording at least a point.

Much like it did last year, Punahou will go deep into its bench again this season.

"That's the way we play," Matsuda said. "We'll probably play 12 to 14 guys every game, so that's just our style of play. That's what we're going to do, so we're trying to develop that from right now."

Kalaheo posted a 60-55 win over Saint Louis Wednesday and a 43-32 win over Honokaa Thursday, but fell to St. Francis, 61-54, Friday night without its top player.

Senior point guard Captain Whitlock led the Mustangs in scoring in their first two games, including a 40-point performance against the Crusaders, but sat out against the Saints with a groin injury. He is expected to play against Punahou.

"Obviously we have a great leader in Captain Whitlock, but then we really do have a deep team behind him when everybody is healthy," Kalaheo coach Rob Pardini said.

The Mustangs return three starters in guards Whitlock and Ryan Pardini, along with forward Andrew Kearney. Additionally, junior forward Harry Wallace started several games in the early part of last season before solidifying his role as the sixth man.

"I think we're exactly where we need to be right now," Rob Pardini said. "We're going through some growing pains as far as figuring out what our identity is, but right now we're getting a lot of bodies into the rotation and with the way the officiating is going, that's going to be real important. You have to have guys to rotate in."

Pardini said a week-long trip to Los Angeles provided some valuable exposure to high-level competition, which he hopes will parlay into success down the line.

"We played very, very good teams with a lot of talented kids, so it was a great experience for us," said Pardini, whose team went 2-3 on the trip. "The game experience was huge. The speed and the size and the quickness of that game is so much more different than what we see here in Hawaii, so that kind of fast forwarded us about thirty days."

The Buffanblu will provide a stiff test for the Mustangs, Pardini said.

"They're returning pretty much everybody from last year," Pardini said. "They've got a lot of speed and quickness, they get up in you full court, they shoot the ball well from the perimeter, they defend well full court, so it should be a great matchup for us. They're an excellent ball club."