Knights Pin OIA Hopes On Defense, Team Play

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Castle girls basketball coach Jeff McKeown hopes his team has saved its biggest efforts for its biggest games.

“We’re getting better,” he said. “We knew we wouldn’t be playing our best basketball at the beginning of the season because we had put in a lot of new stuff. But the kids have turned it up a notch lately. Since the beginning of the season, our goal has been to make the state tournament.”

His Knights must finish among the top three teams in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II Tournament to earn a second straight bid for states. With wins in three of their last four games heading into last weekend’s finale with Anuenue, they appeared to be right on schedule for another post-season run.

Of the schools in the OIA Tournament, which begins May 8 at various sites, Castle is among the more interesting teams to track. They are truly a team without a superstar, with nary a single player among the league’s top 10 scorers. Castle’s rotation has centered largely around Candy Ames, Marisa Ameperosa, Niki Kobashigawa, Sarah Phromisiri and Kori Berinobis, whose twelve 3-pointers lead the team. Only Ames was a starter a year ago, so the Knights are a far different team than the one that finished off the 2006 campaign. Despite a revamped lineup, Castle’s cohesiveness has multiplied over the past few months, McKeown said.

“We’re pleased with the fact that they’re starting to become a team. They’re all relying more on each other rather than on self. It’s a collection of the whole.”

Castle was to learn its OIA first-round opponent over the weekend, following the completion of the White Division’s regular season. McKeown was already anticipating it would be Waialua or Waianae. Castle beat Waialua by 14 and lost to Waianae by 2 this season. Regardless of the opponent, they enter the post-season very aware that their best offense all season has been their defense. In seven of their 11 games this spring, the Knights held the opposition to 40 points or less. They were 5-2 in those games, with the losses having come to Campbell and Castle early in the season.

“The key to the whole season is that in the games where we played well on the defensive end and eliminated our turnovers, we’ve been successful,” said McKeown, whose team finished third in the OIA last year.“Defense and rebounding are key for us. We’ve struggled on that (rebounding) end. We got better, and then we took a step back in our last game (a 42-39 win over Kaiser).

“Offensively, we’re good when we share the ball and we get good shots.”

For much of the season, the Knights were without a full roster due to injuries, but McKeown expects everyone to be available during the post-season. The Hawaiian Airlines HHSAA Division II State Basketball Championships are May 15-18 at various sites.