Lady Sabers Win DII State B-ball Title In Nail-biting Play
By Jack Danilewicz
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Part one of a year-end review of West Oahu prep sports
Ariel Medlin never tires of reliving the scenario - state championship game ... score tied ... clock winding down ... ball in her hands.
“I have the DVD,“Medlin says of her rebounded basket as time expired to lift Campbell to a thrilling 57-55 win over McKinley in the Division II final of the Girls Basketball State Championships Feb. 22. “I’ve watched it over and over.”
More than anything, Medlin and her fellow underclassmen wanted to send their senior teammates out the right way.
“They’d made it (to the state tournament) the year before, but didn’t pull through,” Medlin said of a senior class that included Aloha DiasKekahuna,Ama Lui,Amber Kaulia, Vai Confer and Kaitlynn Simmonds. “No Campbell team had won a girls basketball championship at all, and we wanted our seniors to leave with something.”
Added Jazmin Brown, who had what she called her best game of the year in the title game with 13 points and 11 rebounds: “The juniors worked hard for the seniors. We wanted to do it for them.”
The Sabers did not yet know they’d be sending their coach, Nathan Macadangdang, out as winner as well. He retired from coaching at season’s end, having led Campbell to an 18-2 mark.
While the Sabers authored the perfect finish to their season, there was no direct line to it. Only a week earlier, Campbell had been defeated by Kailua in the semifinals of the OIA DII Tournament and had to settle for third in their own league.
When the Sabers began play in the state tournament the following week,however,they quickly regained their stride and beat Hanalani (57-36), Kamehameha-Hawaii (53-47) and Kailua (39-25) to advance to the title game.
In the final, a raucous crowd at Stan Sheriff Center saw Campbell withstand two amazing comebacks by the Tigers.The Sabers had the ball with the score tied at 55 and just 14 seconds left when Macadangdang called time out.
Aloha Dias-Kekahuna, who had a team-high 15 points,found a seam on the baseline and missed a 12-footer.She went after the offensive board, but her follow shot was too strong.
Medlin was in position for the rebound and let go of her put-back, which floated straight up and found the bottom of the net as the buzzer sounded.
“Coach told us to wait for an open shot and then for me to get the rebound,“Medlin said.“That was the plan, but it was a panic shot mostly.”
In what was clearly a banner year for prep sports on the West side,any discussion of the top stories for 2008 has to begin with the Sabers’ state title run.A recap of some of the other great stories on the West side follows.
Waipahu Baseball Team Wins OIA DII Title. Waipahu trailed Radford 3-2 in the seventh inning of the OIA DII title game April 28 before Tryton Gante sprang Aldrin Padilla with the tying run,and Jansen Rios quickly followed with a game-winning RBI to produce an unlikely 4-3 Marauder victory. The dramatic turn of events helped the school to its first OIA baseball title since 1985 when there was still only one division. Kaimi Haina was the winning pitcher, striking out 11.At season’s end, he was selected as the DII West OIA Player of the Year.The Rams held the lead until the seventh inning when Marauder Tryton Gante singled to drive in Aldrin Padilla with the tying run.Later that inning, Jansen Rios singled up the middle to drive in the game-winning run and give Waipahu the White Division championship. The Marauders’ dreams of a state title were dashed the following week in the quarterfinals of the DII State Tournament when Waipahu was upset by Kalaheo 3-1. Waipahu’s Milton Takenaka was named Coach of the Year in the West after leading the Marauders to a 12-2-1 season.
Pearl City Boys Bowling Team Wins State Title.Pearl City head boys bowling coach James Hayashi was prepared to leave no stone unturned when his team arrived in Kauai for the HHSAA Bowling State Championships. After his team practiced at 10 a.m. at the Lihue Bowling Center, Hayashi wasn’t quite satisfied and ordered second and third practice sessions at 4 and 9 p.m., respectively. The Chargers came through the following day,toppling runner-up Waiakea by 37 pins for its first championship since 2001. Following a near-full day at the lanes, the Chargers were ready to roll. Jonathan Carino led Pearl City with a 12th-place finish, followed by Micah Lee in 14th, Jordon Ono in 17th and Derek Suefuji in 22nd. Robert Nakanishi,Evan Hayashi and Kevin Oshiro also contributed for the Chargers.
Aiea Girls Volleyball Team Rebounds Big to Win Red West Title. In a sense, the 2008 Aiea volleyball season began for Na Ali’i the moment their 2007 season ended. After finishing a disappointing 6-6,Blythe Yamamoto’s team responded big this fall to go through the OIA Red West undefeated in the regular season at 12-0 en route to its first state tournament appearance in three years. Junior setter Danielle Grace was named Player of the Year in the Red West, while teammates Kelly Leopoldo,Mele Samisoni and senior Michelle Lambayan also were named to the first team.Na Ali’i finished their season at 15-4 overall.
Pearl City Baseball Team Wins Second Straight OIA Title. Sophomore Kahana Neal gutted out a 136-pitch effort on the mound as Pearl City rallied for an 8-7 win over Kailua in eight innings to capture the OIA Red championship April 28. It was the Chargers’ second OIA title game win over Kailua in as many years. Neal, a sophomore, struck out eight and walked five in 7-1/3 innings, and Bryson Nakamura came in to record the save in a memorable eighth inning.The Chargers’Corey Yuh, who had thrown a four-hit shutout in Pearl City’s semifinal win over Castle the day before, was a clutch performer at the plate, going 3-for-4 with three RBIs. Two of them came on an opposite-field single in the top of the sixth that tied the game at 5.Pearl City,which had captured the state title in 2007 under the late Mel Seki, returned to the state tournament the following week and posted a win over Mid-Pacific in the quarterfinals before the Chargers lost to eventual tournament runner-up Saint Louis.
Pearl City beat Maui High 6-0 in the third-place game to finish its season at 19-5-2 (13-2 in OIA) under first-year head coach Gary Nakamoto.
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