Champions In Furtado’s Eyes

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Lady Mustang Nova Bird practices her shot under the guidance of coach Chico Furtado. Photo by Nathalie Walker, staff photographer.
Lady Mustang Nova Bird
practices her shot under
the guidance of coach
Chico Furtado. Photo by
Nathalie Walker, staff
photographer.

Even before his team took the floor for its Oahu Interscholastic Association championship game with Roosevelt last Friday night, Kalaheo girls basketball coach Chico Furtado had rated the 2006 Lady Mustangs among his most memorable at the Kailua school on effort alone.

“This team has really surpassed our expectations,” said Furtado.“From the beginning of the season to now, they’ve accomplished more than any other team in the past when you consider all of the people we lost to graduation from last year. They’ve banded together. My hat’s off to them. They’ve worked hard to get here.”

This week, the Lady Mustangs have a chance to do what no other Kalaheo team has done in its proud history - win a girls state championship. In advancing to the OIA title game, the Lady Mustangs had improved their chances for a favorable seeding for this week’s Hawaiian Airlines Division I State Basketball Tournament, which will run Wednesday through Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center on the University of Hawaii campus. Pairings for the tournament were to be announced Sunday evening.

No matter how they fare in the state tournament, the Lady Mustangs have already enjoyed a stellar season to date, after losing four starters from last year’s team, which was the OIA East’s co-regular-season champion with Kahuku. Under Furtado, Kalaheo has won five OIA titles and will be making its ninth state tournament appearance in the last 10 years. Kalaheo has also been the state tournament runner-up twice, most recently in 2001.

Furtado doesn’t anticipate any changes in the team’s preparation.

“We want to keep our intensity up in practice, but we can’t afford any freak injuries, either. We’ve limited some of our five-on-five stuff, and we’re refining some of the things we do offensively and defensively.”

While Kalaheo has long since been recognized for its ability to execute its flex-motion offense, defense has remained the Lady Mustangs’ forte. In a season that has seen them play more zone defense than in perhaps any other year, the girls reverted back to man-to-man in their last two outings against Farrington and Radford and had two of their best defensive efforts of the season.

“That aspect of our game has matured,” Furtado noted. “Hopefully, we can have the same kind of offensive effort next week to go with the defensive efforts we’ve been getting lately. Our last two wins were due to our defense.”

Offensively, the Lady Mustangs have become more balanced in recent weeks, complementing the output of junior guard Shanadee Canon, who is one of the state’s top scorers at 20.1 points per game. She was held scoreless in the second half of Kalaheo’s OIA semifinal victory over West Division champion Radford, but the Lady Mustangs received solid efforts from Kaliko Kepa, Kendra Fischer and relative newcomer Delecia Wilson to compensate in that game. Furtado also praised the play of three-year varsity player Hoku KauiDenning.

“We’d like Shan to have a big game every night, but we also have to get contributions from other people,“Furtado said.“Offensively, we had a couple of kids step up and, defensively, our whole team stepped up.”

Wilson, a transfer from Kahuku, took over the point guard duties midway through the regular season and has been a steady presence since.

“She takes the pressure off of Shan by handling the ball, allowing us to move her (Canon) to the two (off guard spot),” Furtado said.

“She was as aggressive as I’ve seen her, offensively, against Radford, and she can defend. Hopefully, that will continue.”