This time around, defending Division I state champion Kalaheo did not let crosstown rival Kailua get away with an upset.
On Friday night, the Mustangs got a boost of energy in the fourth quarter to snuff out the visiting Surfriders for a 66-57 Oahu Interscholastic Association boys basketball quarterfinal victory and punch their return ticket to states.
All the vitality No. 8 Kalaheo needed came in the form of the ejection of senior point guard Captain Whitlock late in the fourth. The officials threw him out for jabbering back at them after, according to Mustangs coach Rob Pardini, he was given a warning.
With a 40-39 lead at the end of three quarters, Kalaheo (10-2) found an extra gear and attacked the basket with passion and played defense with more vigor. It also didn’t hurt to have Kekai Smith in the lineup. He scored 11 of his game-high 23 points in the final stanza, including a clutch 7-for-7 from the free-throw line.
“We cut it to one point and Kekai Smith took over the game,” said Kailua coach Wally Marciel, who has close ties to the Smith family that includes Kekai’s father, Alika Smith, the former Hawaii star guard, and Pete Smith, the Mustangs’ late legendary coach.
In Pardini’s mind, the Whitlock ejection “absolutely” played a big factor in the final result.
“They rallied and finished it off,” he said. “They said, ‘Let’s dig deep for Cap.’ ”
Smith added: “Coach fired us up and said, ‘We can’t let them take this game away. We have to fight.’ ”
As a team, the Mustangs were a phenomenal 18-for-21 from the charity stripe in the final eight minutes (32-for-38 in all).
“We do a drill and then shoot 20 free throws and then do another drill and shoot 20 more and so on,” Smith said about the importance of free-throw percentage being hammered into the players by the Kalaheo brain trust.
Still, Kailua (7-6) trailed by only three, 60-57, with 42 seconds to go before the Surfriders were forced to foul three more times for the final six Mustangs points.
The five Kalaheo players on the floor late in the game — Smith, Andrew Kearney, Harry Wallace, Ryan Pardini and Alex Layi — were the team’s starters before Whitlock joined the team with the season in progress.
“We were rockin’ and rollin’ with them before Whitlock stepped in,” said Pardini, who added that he had to hold himself back from getting ejected himself after Whitlock got kicked out. “Kailua is a good team and they’re very well coached.”
Layi finished with 14 points, Pardini 10 and Whitlock nine.
Zachary Marrotte, a 6-foot-4 guard who played for the Mustangs last season, led the Surfriders with 16 points, including a late fourth-quarter trey that made it 56-50.
“I think we could have picked up the defense more in the first quarter and not let them get that opening for a big lead,” Marrotte said. Kalaheo led 22-14 after the first break and 36-25 at the half.
Kailua’s 6-3 forward Kawehe Kohatsu and 6-4 center Christian Mejia pounded their way to 13 points apiece, but did not have much open space due to the Mustangs’ 2-3 zone.
“They packed it in on our big guys, who had to fight hard for everything they got,” said Marciel, whose squad knocked off the visiting Mustangs 54-52 on Jan. 20.
Kalaheo meets No. 4 Leilehua in the OIA semifinals Tuesday at the McKinley gym. Kailua plays at Moanalua in an elimination game. The winner moves on to the fifth-place game.
