KALAHEO — A 20-point advantage iced the championship for the Wailua girls in the ZZ/Rotary Club of West Kaua‘i Girls 19 Under Youth basketball league Monday night. Kennilyn Nakamura chalked up a dozen points as well as executing some key
KALAHEO — A 20-point advantage iced the championship for the Wailua girls in the ZZ/Rotary Club of West Kaua‘i Girls 19 Under Youth basketball league Monday night.
Kennilyn Nakamura chalked up a dozen points as well as executing some key defensive maneuvers enroute to the championship-clinching 40-20 victory over Fer Fun.
Jeff Venzon, commissioner for the ZZ Youth league said the battle came down to who had the fewest losses.
Wailua, despite suffering back-to-back losses last week, closed their season with just those two losses.
Following Wailua, Venzon said there is a bottleneck for second place with the Kilauea Hui holding the advantage with a three-loss record along with Kaua‘i ATV.
That bottleneck was broken in game three when Kaulupono eked out a 26-25 defensive slugfest over Kaua‘i ATV.
Jayme Jacinto had the hot hand with eight points in that win followed by Moani Durant and Mallory Hepa each netting five points.
In the 19 Under boys division which wraps up this week, Venzon said Kalaheo had the distinct advantage with just a single loss, a forfeit earlier last week.
Another bottleneck at second place will be broken up as games continue through Thursday night.
“This is good,” Venzon said. “That means the teams are pretty well matched up.”
Entering their final game, Wailua was bolstered by the appearance of the calvary in the waning seconds of the first quarter as Rachel Ganir, Chanita Makanui and Destiny Smith flew into the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center atop wings of unbridled hair.
Their appearance settled a seesaw first half as coach Talbert Tacbian assigned his defensive low posts to limit Fer Fun’s Kayla Werner to a hard-earned pair in the contest.
“She (Werner) has to be the most improved player in the league,” Fer Fun coach Dennis Aquino said. “When she started out, no one had even asked her to play. But she wanted to play and now, when she has the ball in heavy traffic, she knows what she must do. She has come a long way.”
Limited to just a five-player roster, Fer Fun was victimized by a slew of bad passes in the second half.
These were capitalized on by Wailua who outgunned Fer Fun 25-8 in the second half.
Following Nakamura’s lead, Chelsie Villatora added nine and Rachel Ganir finished with five.
Nani Dennis topped Fer Fun’s scoring with a game-high 16 points followed by Wailana Borrero and Werner’s two-point contributions.
Cory Arashiro topped the Kaua‘i ATV effort in game two with eight points followed by Holly Illoreta and Rachael Taira adding five and four points, respectively.
Earlier in the evening, Michael Curnan mastered a tough play in the third quarter for the Kaua‘i Fire Raiders in the Boys 12 Under contest.
That triggered a final-frame rally attempt that fell short 30-25 as Kaulupono held the redshirts at bay.
Ariel Lahip finished with a dozen points and got help from Kaili Lagundino who poured in 10 points in the win.
Austin Oshiro topped the Raiders’ efforts with six points followed by Curnan adding five, including that play-of-the-night bucket in the third frame. Jensen Koga worked the inside traffic for four points.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com.
