HHSAA Boys Basketball
Third quarter surge propels Kailua over Kapolei


Mathew Vasconcellos
February 22, 2022, 6:22am

  

Mon, Feb 21, 2022 @ Kailua

Kapolei

33

Kailua

53

Final 1 2 3 4  
Kapolei (11-3, 11-4) 14 74833
Kailua (13-1, 14-4) 11 14 20 853
Jonny Philbrick 18 pts  2 3pm  0/1 FTs
Kunique Yandall-Parker 14 pts  10/19 FTs
Ethan Kunz 8 tot  2 off  6 def
Kunique Yandall-Parker 15 tot  9 off  6 def


Surf is up on the east side.

After their first loss of the season against Mililani on Wednesday, the Kailua Surfrider boys basketball team used a third quarter surge to earn a rather easy win over the Kapolei Hurricanes 53-33 at Kailua High School Gym on Monday.

"Mililani has terrific guards," Kailua coach Wally Marciel said. "We didn't come out in the third quarter and play really well."

Kailua played well this time around.

Kailua shot 49% (22-52) overall, 67% (4-6) from 3-point range, and 62.5% (5-8) from the free throw line. Kapolei was held to 25% (10-40) shooting overall, a dismal 8.3% (1-12) from 3-point range, and under 43% (12-28) at the free throw line.

Johnny Philbrick led the way for Kailua at 18 points, two rebounds, and a team high six steals. Reece Matsukawa was next in line with 13 points and four rebounds. Both Philbrick and Matsukawa had two triples each, but had committed 12 turnovers combined (Philbrick five, Matsukawa seven). Ethan Kunz and Noah Donnelly had six points, but Donnelly had a team high eight rebounds.

The first quarter saw buckets traded left and right. However, the Hurricanes took early control and blew away. Kapolei built as much as a five-point lead with less than a minute left, but Philbrick gave Kailua some momentum with a triple with 6.5 seconds left. Kapolei still led 14-11.

"We wanted to get back to the pace we were running," Marciel said.

From the second quarter on, it was all Kailua. Although Kapolei extended its lead to seven points 20-13 with 5:40 remaining, they were held to less than 10 points scored for the final three quarters.

Kailua responded at the 4:50 mark with a 10-1 run to end the second quarter and wipe out Kapolei's lead. The Hurricanes were held to just seven points scored, as the Surfriders took a 25-21 lead at the break.

Kailua came out lava hot in the third quarter. They surfed out to the tune of a 14-0 run and limited Kapolei to just four points scored. The Hurricanes finally got on the board via a Bryce Mesa bucket at the 3:17 mark; Luke Schlicher scored their only other bucket with 1:33 remaining. Kailua's 20-4 showing in the third quarter put them up 45-25.

"We pressed up a little bit more," Marciel added. "We went into a zone and made them shoot from the outside."

It worked. Kapolei's only triple came in the second quarter courtesy of Schlicher, and they went stone cold in the entire second half.

Down 20, Kapolei needed multiple miracles to pull off an upset in the fourth quarter but never got one. The fourth quarter saw only 16 points total – eight from both teams. Overall, Kailua outscored Kapolei 40-13 in the final 19:10 of the game.

Kapolei was led by Kunique Yandall-Parker's double-double of 14 points and team high 15 rebounds. Yandall-Parker accounted for all six of Kapolei's blocks. Everybody else on Kapolei scored five points or less.

Kailua improves to 14-2 overall and 13-1 in the OIA, while Kapolei drops to 11-4 overall and 11-3 in the OIA. Kailua will next face off against the Baldwin Bears of the MIL at Moanalua High School on Thursday, Feb. 24. Tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. HST.




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