KAPA‘A — Waimea basketball head coach Nouveau Naumu isn’t an old man. But after the first two games of the KIF boys basketball season, he is certainly feeling like it.
After falling to Kaua‘i on Tuesday in the last minute, Naumu once again had to sit through another nail-biter. This time, though, his Menehune came out on the winning end.
Waimea came back from a 10-point first quarter deficit to defeat the defending KIF champion Kapa‘a Warriors 58-55 Saturday night at Kapa‘a High School.
“I don’t know how many of these games I can handle,” Naumu said. “Each one is taking 15 years off of my life.”
The Menehune got 18 points from senior Kaili Schumacher-Lagundine and fellow senior Brandon Palacio added 15 points. Both players made key free-throws in the final minutes to ice the victory for the Menehune.
“Our seniors are doing great and showing great leadership,” Naumu said. “They can always do that. They just need to every night. They did tonight.”
The Menehune began the fourth quarter with a 35-33 lead, but after seven minutes of back-and-forth basketball, the Menehune found themselves down 54-55 with 23 seconds to play. That’s when Schumacher-Lagundine was fouled driving to the basket and found himself at the free-throw line. With the crowd roaring, the Waimea senior drained both free-throws to give the Menehune a one-point lead. On the next play, Waimea’s Paul Oligo stole the ball as Kapa‘a tried to move up court, and was fouled. He made his two charity shots to clinch the win for the Menehune.
Earlier in the quarter, Palacio was at the line with the Menehune down by the point, and he said he can relate to the clutch shots his teammates made.
“All I wanted to do was make mine, and I know that’s what they wanted to do as well,” Palacio said. “You have to zone out the crowd and make the shots just like it’s practice.”
Waimea’s ability to sink shots in the fourth quarter was a direct contrast from the opening eight minutes.
The first quarter saw the Warriors jump out of the gates quickly, led by 7 points from Taylor Adkins. But as the second quarter began and the Menehune found themselves in a deep hole, Waimea knew it needed to press.
So the Menehune used the press.
From the first tick of the second quarter, the Menehune defenders swarmed like bees. The Warriors struggled to move the ball up court and the Menehune forced many turnovers.
“We didn’t execute breaking the press, and our turnovers cost us,” Kapa‘a head coach Philip Baclayon said. “They picked up the pace and got the momentum going. We struggled to get past that.”
After Kapa’a’s opening 16-4 lead, the Warriors didn’t outscore the Menehune in any of the remaining three quarters.
But after falling behind at the end of the third, Kapa‘a fought back to regain the lead behind the stellar play of Willis Batol, who had 9 points in the quarter. But the Warriors missed some key shots in the dying moments, including an open layup, that ended up costing the team.
“We missed a lot of easy shots down the lane,” Baclayon said.
Meanwhile, as crunch time came upon them, the Menehune shots fell.
In the first half the Menehune were 0-7 from three point range. Palacio drained his two three attempts in the second half.
“We’re playing the defending champs. We never like to lose and we were already down one from last game,” Palacio said. “We’re a team and we got back together and tought like a team. With the game on the line you have to make big shots.”
