McKinley mans up after half to top Kapaa

Halftime is time to man up or go home.

The McKinley Tigers switched from a zone defense to a man-to-man at halftime, and bewildered Kapaa enough to score a 77-69 win in a first-round Division II game in the Hawaiian Airlines/HHSAA Boys Basketball Championships at Kaimuki on Thursday.

The Tigers forced third-seeded Kapaa into nearly as many turnovers (11) as they had points (12) in the third quarter and turned a 31-30 deficit into a 58-43 lead.

“We tried to change up the defense,” McKinley coach Bob Morikuni said. “Kapaa had us when we were going 2-3 zone, so the assistant coaches suggested we run man-to-man. I think Kapaa came out and played harder than us. We weren’t ready for that.”

But once the game became as simple as stopping the man in front of you, McKinley excelled.

Kapaa gave up its lead two possessions into the second half but hung around to trail by only two points with 5:11 to go in the quarter.

The Warriors of the Kauai Interscholastic Federation did not score for their next 12 possessions and turned the ball over eight times in the span, including four in a row at one point.

The Tigers scored on eight of their 12 possessions to turn a 2-point lead into a 17-point cushion. Five different Tigers scored in the blitz.

“We just started playing like we usually play and stopped turning it over,” McKinley’s Alex Ironside said. “We just played smart after half. We tried to get into their jerseys, not let them get comfortable.”

Ironside led the Tigers with 25 points, hitting his last two free throws with 10 seconds left to seal it after Kapaa cut the lead from 19 to 8 in the last 2 minutes. The Warriors rallied behind 12 points from point guard Willis Batol and eight from Lance Miyashiro. Miyashiro led all scorers with 26 points and Batol contributed 19 with seven assists.

Justly Laquihon had 14 points for the Tigers and Jace Boloson added 10. Kapaa received all of its scoring from its five starters, while McKinley got 20 from its bench.

McKinley (12-6) moves on to play Hawaii Prep today at 5 p.m. at Farrington. Kapaa (12-2) drops to the consolation bracket to meet Hanalani at 7 at Kaimuki. McKinley and Kapaa, which is playing in its third straight state tournament, were both ousted in the first round of last year’s tournament.

Kapaa grabbed its first lead of the game with 1.6 seconds before the half when Kainoa Colipano hit both ends of a 1-and-1 to complete a 6-0 run. The Tigers led by as many as eight points in the first quarter, but Kapaa battled back when Batol ran hot with two nifty assists and four free throws in the first 2 minutes of the second quarter.

“All in all, (Batol) has been really good for us,” Kapaa coach Philip Baclayon said. “But we want to spread the ball around, not get in a position where only two players are scoring.”

Dakota Berman scored 24 points and Kama DeSilva added 14 and Ka Makani blew out the Royals.
Jovan Crnic, Hawaii Prep’s 6-foot-3 forward, effectively closed the proceedings with a dunk in the third quarter for two of his nine points.
Mark Milton led Hanalani with 19 points and Mike Milton added 15.
Second seed HPA moves on to play McKinley at 5 p.m. at Farrington and Hanalani stays at Kaimuki to play Kapaa after dropping into the consolation bracket.

Shane Jacob scored 14 points, Jake Golm added 11 and Steven Shoemaker had 10 as the Spartans edged the fourth-seeded Saints.
Seabury Hall of the Maui Interscholastic League raced to a 15-7 first-quarter lead and held on.
Keoni Tom-Millare scored 20 points for St. Francis.

The Mustangs struggled in the second quarter, scoring only five points, but came back strong in the second half, scoring 32 points to defeat the Cowboys.
Nainoa Frank scored 17 points and Josh Ko added 14 to lead top-seeded Kalaheo.
Christopher Roxburgh scored 22 points for Kohala.