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Kailua’s fourth-quarter surge on Thursday extended the Surfriders’ hopes of reaching their “fourth season.”
Kailua guard Everett Torres-Kahapea scored 10 of his game-high 23 points in the final period and center Isaiah Hopson controlled the paint to finish with 22 to lead the Surfriders to a 69-51 win over Aiea in the first round of the OIA Division I boys basketball playoffs on Thursday at the Surfriders’ gym.
“Like we tell Everett, you shoot as many shots and I’ll go get the rebounds,” said Hopson, a 6-foot-6 junior.
Kailua saw a 13-point halftime lead chopped to three late in the third quarter, but the Surfriders (6-5) responded with a 10-1 run in the fourth to survive the do-or-die opening round and advance to a quarterfinal matchup at OIA West top seed Kapolei today at 6 p.m.
Tonight’s four quarterfinal winners earn state tournament berths. The losers fall into the fifth-place bracket and will need to win on Monday to secure the OIA’s two remaining spots in the state bracket.
“We talk about four seasons,” Kailua coach Wally Marciel said. “First is preseason, second is regular season, third OIA (playoffs) and four is states. Every year our guys write a goal sheet at the beginning of the year and our goal is the state tournament.”
Aiea and Kailua bolted to strong starts to the regular season — Na Alii at 6-0 and the Surfriders at 5-1 — but closed with four-game losing streaks to slip to the middle of the pack in their divisions entering the playoffs.
With the season on the line, Torres-Kahapea and Hopson combined for 12 points in a 16-4 Kailua run to close the second quarter and the Surfriders took a 30-17 lead into the break.
Aiea guard Jamie Amos went scoreless in the first half but sparked Na Alii’s comeback with 10 points in the third quarter. He drained a 3-pointer while drawing a foul and his free throw cut Kailua’s lead to 38-35 with 40 seconds left in the period.
“He kept us in the game. He basically carried us on his back,” Aiea coach Justin Miura said of Amos, who finished with 16 points. “He’a very tough competitor. He’s one of those guys, it doesn’t matter who he matches up against, he’s looking forward to the challenge. So he stepped up big, and without him we don’t make that run that we did.”
Na Alii remained within three early in the fourth before Kailua guard Kaniala Williams hit a 3 from the wing then scored on a jumper in the lane to give the Surfriders some breathing room.
Torres-Kahapea added a 3 from the top and fed Hopson for a layup while saving a pass under the basket to stretch the lead to double-digits again.
“Isaiah, we’ve been working with him all year in the post — it came together tonight,” Marciel said. “He caught it high, put it up high. We’ve been waiting for that for a while out of him.
“You’re going to get points out of Everett, leadership on the court. And we had some other guys step up tonight. Kaniala Williams hit a couple big shots when it got close. So we need other guys hitting some shots other than Everett.”
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