Kalaheo still rules | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM

Kalaheo’s Alex Layi shot the ball over Kaiser’s Nic Tom and Chance Kalaugher during the first half of the OIA Division I boys basketball championship game on Thursday.

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Kalaheo captured its 19th Oahu Interscholastic Association basketball championship Thursday night by thumping Kaiser 67-47 at the McKinley gym.

It wasn’t close. The defending Division I state and league champion Mustangs (12-2) were not going to roll over for the Cougars (12-2), who went into the game ranked No. 1 in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Top 10 and who hoisted the D-II state title trophy last season.

Alex Layi was a beast on both ends of the floor for Kalaheo. He scored 21 points and was in the middle of the 2-3 zone against high-scoring 6-foot-6 Kaiser star Chance Kalaugher, whom he held to nine points.

“Some games when we play good teams, we get off to a slow start,” Layi said, “so we knew we had to pick up the pace and start fast. This is a really good feeling, especially knowing Kaiser’s No. 1 in the state right now. We can’t have a day to celebrate, though, because we’ve got to focus for states next week.”

The seventh-ranked Mustangs avenged a 59-55 loss to the Cougars on Jan. 26 and proved that the OIA East regular-season title Kaiser won pales in comparison to the overall league crown.

“We were very, very prepared,” Kalaheo coach Rob Pardini said. “We had a really solid practice yesterday, understanding everything we needed to do to come out and basically do what we did in that first quarter and continue to roll. We were very prepared on defense. When you’re playing a zone, you have to be a great team defensively, because there’s a lot of gaps and you’ve got to work together.”

Kalaheo sprinted out to a huge 21-2 lead that was slowed temporarily by Kalaugher’s power move to the bucket to make it 21-4. Everything was working for the Mustangs and nothing was working for the Cougars, who appeared to be in a state of shock.

Kalaheo continued to enjoy that nice cushion, and the lead got as big as 21 points, 38-17, early in the third quarter.

Early in the fourth, Kaiser whittled it to 13 points, 49-36, thanks to three 3-pointers by Isaiah Akiona. But, with 4:07 left, Kalaugher fouled out with an unintentional overhead forearm shiver to the head of an opponent. He came down from a jump swinging for the ball.

“I think I took myself out of the game, that’s about it,” said Kalaugher, when asked about the loss.

The Cougars were still within 13, 55-42, with 2:44 to go, but that’s as close as they could get.

“They did a good job of slowing us down early, and against a good team like that, you can’t afford to be in that kind of hole,” Kaiser coach Branden Kawazoe said. “You never expect to be down 21- 2. We’ve just gotta get better. There’s a lot of things we need to work on.”