Knights’ Offense Needs Some Work
By Jack Danilewicz
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It isn’t by accident that defense has been the Castle boys basketball team’s strength to date, but head coach Jeff Hiro is eying a little more production on the other end as they gear up for a heavy week, highlighted by a trip to Kailua for a key OIA Division II game on Wednesday.
“They haven’t really hit their stride yet, offensively - at least not as I know they are capable of,” said Hiro, whose team also hosts Waianae in a game Friday.“They’re holding their own, but I think we can get a little more out of them. Our defense is way ahead of our offense, and that’s a positive.”
Wednesday’s game at 7 p.m. at Kailua should figure big in both teams’ seasons. The Knights’ 51-45 win over Kailua in their first meeting Jan. 8 was among their biggest victories and underlined the narrow margin for error within the league as a whole, to hear Hiro tell it.
Since the Knights opened preseason camp, he’s been preaching consistency to his team.
“We still have a lot of inconsistency. We’ve had a hard time closing games out where we were ahead. That puzzles me since we are a senior-dominated team.
“It’s not how you do in the first 29 minutes, but how you perform at crunch time. The Kailua and Roosevelt games were similar. We hung on against Kailua,and we folded against Roosevelt. But we’ve seen lots of good things and we’re making strides. Those are both tough teams.”
Castle took a 3-1 record into last Thursday’s game with Kalani. The last outing prior to that game was two days earlier when they routed Anuenue 70-15. Four Knights - Michael Santos (13), Nick Tuamoheloa (11), Isaiah Tilton (11) and KJ Aipia (11) - scored in double figures in that game, and Castle will hope for similar results on Wednesday.
“We’ve shared the ball well, and that’s important - I like our teamwork on offense,” said Hiro, who noted that Santos “has been our most consistent player.“He had a game-high 17 points versus Kailua in the first matchup between the teams and will be a focal point for the Surfriders, defensively.
Eliminating self-imposed miscues has been a point of emphasis for the Knights in recent days. “Offensively, we have to take care of the ball,” Hiro said. “Our play down the stretch against them last time was unacceptable. Defensively, we were OK, but I think I can do better.”
Kailua rebounded from its loss to the Knights to post consecutive wins over Kalani,Anuenue and Pearl City and take a 3-1 record into last Thursday’s game versus Nanakuli.
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