Mustangs Still In Contention After Loss To Moanalua
By Jack Danilewicz
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As Kalaheo prepares for an unprecedented 18th consecutive state tournament appearance this week, head basketball coach Chico Furtado’s message to his team is brief.
“Cherish the moment and have fun,” said Furtado.“I want the kids to enjoy the tournament. We’re going to keep it light and see what we can do. A lot of teams don’t get to play in a state tournament, but we’ve been very fortunate to go every year since 1990-91. We’ve been a fixture there.”
To be sure, there isn’t much the Mustangs haven’t experienced during their tournament history. Under Pete Smith, they won state titles in 1985, 1995 and 2001, the latter two with Furtado assisting.
“We’re not strangers to heartbreak either,” he said, noting that they’ve finished as the tournament’s runner-up four times.
Furtado’s current team experienced some heartbreak of its own last week, when they faded in the closing minutes of an upset loss to Moanalua in the semi-finals of the OIA post-season tournament. Kalaheo had entered that game with an unblemished 13-0 record. The Mustangs, who were to play Campbell last Friday in the OIA’s third-place game, had hoped to earn the league’s top seed as well as a first-round bye for the state tournament. But the loss to Moanalua means they will have to play four games in four days this week. The Division I State Basketball Tournament runs Wednesday through Saturday at various sites on Oahu. Wednesday’s and Thursday’s games will be at either McKinley or Radford, with Friday and Saturday’s contests at Blaisdell Center. Pairings for the tournament were to be announced late Sunday.
“We’ll have to take the hard route,” said Furtado. “There will be 12 teams there, and they are all there for a reason - because they’re good. We’ll have to play good basketball and have some things go our way.”
Among the priorities late last week was a little “fine-tuning” on offense. After leading Moanalua 46-41 in the fourth quarter, Kalaheo was outscored 13-2 the rest of the way.
“Our problem was our offense. We’re successful when we’re scoring in the 50s and 60s. A top score of only 48 isn’t enough. In the third quarter, after we’d gone up eight, we had shot-selection issues. We became perimeter happy. In the first half, we were able to get inside. We lost track of that and became one-dimensional.
“We went back and rehashed every possession of the last four minutes of that game, and the kids were able to see that we just didn’t make enough plays,” he added. “We had a nice practice the following day. I commended the kids for their effort. Unfortunately, sometimes effort isn’t enough.”
The starting lineup will remain as it has for most of the season with Richard Preza-Haynes, Taylor Jay, D.J. Chang and Alika Kaanapu joining senior team leader and Red East Player of the Year candidate Cheynne Lishman. Furtado also expects the bench play to figure big in his team’s fate this week.
“There are so many variables that go into being successful over a four-day stretch. Depth will be important and, offensively, we’ll have to be balanced.”
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