Bulldogs Building Close Team Bond
By MidWeek Staff
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Del.icio.usFor all its athletic skills, if the Kaimuki basketball team makes another memorable run in February, it will be due in large part to its cohesiveness, to hear longtime Bulldog coach Kelly Grant tell it.
“The closeness of the boys (is Kaimuki’s strength),” said Grant, summarizing his team. “We have our basketball-only kids and we have our football boys, but this is a real tight bunch, and that can play an important role.
“These guys hang out together and enjoy each other, and that’s important. Hopefully that will carry on throughout the season.”
The Bulldogs were without the full complement of their roster early in preseason, as several key players were still involved with football, but Grant’s team regrouped to win its OIA Red East opener last week over Kailua, 58-54.
Kaimuki trailed for most of that game before using a 20-8 run in the fourth quarter to overtake the Surfriders. While Grant’s team returned nine players from last year overall, the return of four football players - Chester Sua, Siaosi Haliapiapi, Mason Kualii-Moe and Nicholas Motellang - had a huge impact on being able to pull out the Kailua win.
“They’d only been at practice with us for two weeks, but their toughness made a big difference for us,” he said. “Also, although they’re big guys, they are all quick for their size. In our first four pre-season games, we lost by over 20 points in most of them, and the only reason we beat Mililani was they were missing guys from football, too.”
One Bulldog who has been in the fold throughout this season is Tevin Nishiyama, who put up a team-high 25 points in the OIA-opener.
“We’ve been blessed with real smart guards here over the years, and he falls into that category. He’s spent a lot of time going to clinics through the years, and he played on one of the best traveling club teams. Whenever he had open looks the other night (against Kailua), he hit his shots.”
Dio Taulung also had a big night against Kailua and helped seal the Surfriders’fate with a 3-pointer from the wing that gave Kaimuki the lead for good late in the fourth quarter.
Kaimuki was to follow its OIA opener last week with games against Kahuku, Moanalua and Roosevelt in a five-day span. They host neighboring Kalani on Wednesday in what figures to be a key game on both teams’ schedules.
The Falcons beat Kaimuki in a preseason game last year and feature high-scoring Tatsuya Ono, whose 45-point performance against Kealakehe in a preseason game has already been well-documented.
“We have some videotape on them, and I was able to watch them play Kahuku,” Grant said of Kalani.“It’s hard to score 45 points against anyone. Guys in the NBA have a hard time scoring 45 points.”
Asked if the Bulldogs would pay extra attention to Ono on the defensive end, Grant said, “He’ll get a lot of attention from me.”
Following Wednesday’s game against Kalani, the league will take a break from action. Kaimuki’s next OIA East Red game is the rematch at Kailua Jan. 4.
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