Roosevelt wins D-II title with old-school style

1/1

Swipe or click to see more

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM

Roosevelt’s Tia Sofa, above from left, Cathy Truong and Sadie Ann Luiz celebrated with the OIA Division II championship plaque after the Rough Riders defeated the Castle Knights 61-39 on Wednesday.

Select an option below to continue reading this premium story.

Already a Honolulu Star-Advertiser subscriber? Log in now to continue reading.

Get unlimited access

From as low as $12.95 /mo.

Subscribe Now

John Chung never expected to coach high school basketball again.

When the Roosevelt athletic director needed an interim coach to fill in for the girls program in early December, Chung found the answer right in the mirror. On Wednesday night, the Rough Riders capped an amazing late-season run by puling away from Castle for a 61-39 win and the OIA Division II championship.

Sunshine Vicente put her speed and defense to work for Roosevelt (10-9, 8-4 OIA) with 18 points, four steals and three assists.

“We knew Castle would want revenge on us,” Vicente said, referring to Roosevelt’s 53-36 regular-season win. “We just had to play our game, and our defense gets us into it.”

Some of her points came out of Roosevelt’s classic 1-4 offense. Five times, the Rough Riders scored on backdoor bounce passes.

“We just put that weave and the backdoor passing in the other day. I think it was yesterday,” said Chung, who coached the boys program for roughly two decades.

He also coached the girls for eight seasons, well before any of the current Rough Riders were born. The heavy action away from the ball was a perfect antidote for a rugged Castle man-to-man defense.

Haven Gabriel added 13 points and Kaonohi Quinlan showed tremendous vision with eight points and eight assists. Mari Foster seemed to be everywhere and finished with eight points, five rebounds and five steals.

Tiare Hookano was one of Castle’s tough-as-nails defenders. She finished with nine points, six rebounds and three steals. Briara Nakihei added seven points and eight rebounds for Castle (5-15, 4-9 OIA).

“We just missed assignments on defense. They got a lot of easy layups backdoor on us and that was the game,” Knights coach Joseph Lilio said.

A passionate, polite crowd of about 1,500 at McKinley Student Council Gymnasium saw Roosevelt win its first D-II title since 2004. The Rough Riders won D-I crowns in ’06 and ’07 under Bobby Keanini and again in ’14 and ’15 under Hinano Higa. This time, the rebuild has a lot of old-school nuances, thanks to Chung.

The game was close for one half. The Knights opened the lead to 20-13 after center Sheri Alvarado’s follow shot with 5 minutes left in the second quarter. Roosevelt chipped away with a drive for a bucket and a 3 from Kanilehua Pitoy, both on passes from Vicente. Gabriel’s NBA-range 3 from the top at the buzzer gave Roosevelt a 29-26 lead at the half.

From there, it was almost clinical for the Rough Riders, who went on a 15-3 run in the third quarter.

Roosevelt will have a first-round bye in the Snapple/HHSAA Girls Basketball State Championships, which begins on Wednesday. Castle has also qualified for the tourney.