Owls release girls basketball coach

Mid-Pacific girls basketball coach Wes Masuda has been released by the school, he said Monday.

“The bottom line is, if you’re not winning, you’re not going to stick around,” said Masuda, who has a good relationship with athletic director Jo Ito. “It was amicable.”

The Owls were 5-14 overall and 3-10 in league play. They lost to league champion ‘Iolani in overtime and beat Kamehameha at the Warriors’ gym. In nonconference play, there was a two-point loss to Waiakea, a win over Lahainaluna and a one-point win over Kaimuki — teams that reached the state tournament.

In the end, the departure of three key players hurt. One, Taylor Babbitt, transferred to Mililani. Another went to Kaiser, and another, post standout Tasi Docktor, elected to focus on her primary sport, softball.

Lady Red Raiders are amazing

The Kahuku girls basketball team became the first in recent memory to go from unseeded — and unranked — to third place in the state tournament.

Kahuku was unranked all season, but highly competitive thanks to year-round hoopsters like Leighlani Paselio. She often played pickup games at the nearby BYU-Hawaii campus with boys and men during the summer. She’ll graduate, but Kahuku’s junior varsity team won the league crown, and two-sport standouts like Pati Anae will return.

Coach Scott DeSilva hopes the team can sustain momentum through the offseason, even as most of his players focus on volleyball. “They start training for (varsity) volleyball in July, so I’m hoping for them to commit to training (for basketball) in June,” said DeSilva.

Morton feeling purplish blue

Mike Morton left on his own terms, all right.

His Pearl City girls basketball team won the league title for the first time, but was eliminated at the state tourney in a 42-41 stunner against Kahuku. The Chargers then edged Kaiser in a consolation game before meeting Mililani for fifth place. He decided to empty his bench, even using a player who hadn’t logged a minute all season. Mililani won handily, and Morton’s 11-year career as Pearl City’s coach came to a close.

“I’m feeling weird. Kind of sad,” he conceded.

Rarified air

Longtime girls basketball guru Frank Mauz did some number crunching after last week’s girls basketball state tourney.

Mauz, a former Advertiser high school sportswriter who is a teacher at HCC, pored through the four-year state-tourney statistics of Konawaena’s Lia Galdeira and Dawnyelle Awa. Galdeira finished her career with a 15.3 scoring average in 12 state games. Awa averaged 9.6 points as the Wildcats won three state titles. But that’s not what haas Mauz wondering.

“I don’t know who else has played every one of their team’s games in four tournaments,” he said.