Solid Playing Ups the Ante For Post-season Bulldogs

Wednesday - February 07, 2007
By Jack Danilewicz
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Kaimuki’s Keone Reyes attempts to sweep the ball past Kalaheo High’s Clifton Pires. Photo by Byron Lee
Kaimuki’s Keone Reyes attempts to
sweep the ball past Kalaheo High’s
Clifton Pires. Photo by Byron Lee,
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The “sense of urgency” that comes with the post-season has been in place for weeks within the Kaimuki High School basketball program, to hear coach Kelly Grant tell it.

“The kids know it’s crunch time,“said Grant.“They realize they have to work hard. It’s one(loss)-and-done if they don’t step it up.”

The defending Oahu Interscholastic Association champion Bulldogs have spent the last two weeks positioning themselves for what they hope will be a favorable seeding for the league’s post-season tournament, which begins Thursday with first-round games. The first and second seeds from the OIA East receive an automatic first-round bye in addition to earning the right to host a quarter-final game Saturday. Kaimuki was in the running with Kailua and Moanalua for the East’s second seed.


Of perhaps more importance to the Bulldogs than a good seed has been their solid play as of late. Although a 68-61 loss to eventual regular-season champion Kalaheo officially ended the Bulldogs’ own East Red hopes Jan. 20, Grant’s team took some momentum away from that encounter and responded with convincing wins in its next two games against Kailua (47-42) and Castle (70-46). Kaimuki was to close out its regular season last Friday night when it played at Moanalua and then was to await the release of pairings for the OIA Tournament over the weekend.

A year ago at tournament time, few were better than the Bulldogs, who followed up their riveting run through the OIA tourney by advancing all the way to the title game of the Hawaiian Airlines State Tournament, where they were defeated by then-four-time defending champion Iolani.

While veterans Keone Reyes,Beau Albrechtson, Daniel Colon and Brandon Madamba returned from that Kaimuki team, the current Bulldogs have had to find another approach with a smaller lineup.

“We went from 6-(foot-)1 to 6-4 (in the lineup) to 5-7, 5-9 and 5-9,“Grant said,“so we’ve had to play a lot of different (defensive) schemes. We have to change things up, and we have to get steals. We struggled early (in the season), but now we’ve settled into some of the things that we do best.”

Defense has been their forte as of late, holding their last couple of opponents to an average of 44 points per outing. Unlike a year ago, when Kaimuki played a lot of zone, the Bulldogs have blossomed lately by playing man-to-man defense as well as a version of the match-up.

“We’re doing what we did about 15 percent of the time last year, 85 percent of the time now,“Grant said. “Quickness, we knew, would be our strength.”

It has been Colon, a senior offguard, who has set the tone for Kaimuki much of this season with good decision-making ability, according to Grant.

“He’s really been playing well the last few games,” the coach said. “He’s had no defensive breakdowns, and he’s handled the ball well. His shot selection has been superb. I think he’s shooting about 75 percent from the floor, and he’s been good at going to the basket. And (sophomore) Ryan Kakitani has been consistent all season in trying to fit in with the others.”


Self-inflicted wounds, meanwhile, have been the Bulldogs’ nemesis as much as opposing teams. Through 26 games including the pre-season, Kaimuki has averaged between 18 and 20 turnovers, according to Grant. The Bulldogs had just 10 and 12, respectively, in their last two games, a good sign for a team that has had trouble rebounding at times.

Kaimuki’s experience in post-season play figures to be a boost for the Bulldogs in the OIA playoffs.

“This group has experienced a lot of different situations,” said Grant.

“That is, hopefully, something they can fall back on.”

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