Consider it a clean sweep for Kamehameha-Hawai`i junior forward Casey Poe.
Three weeks after she was named Most Outstanding Player at the Hawaiian Airlines / Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division II Girls Basketball Championships following her team’s championship, Poe added the BIIF’s East Hawai`i Player of the Year award to her long list of accomplishments this season.
Courtney Kaupu was named Player of the Year in West Hawai`i. Unlike football, which designates its all-league teams by division, basketball splits its awards by region, since teams don’t cross the island to play one another in the regular season.
According to the team’s statistics on MaxPreps, Poe led her team with 18.1 points per game. She was also their top free throw shooter, knocking down 75 percent of her shots (103-for-138), field goal shooter, hitting 52 percent (120-for-231) of her attempts, and rebounder, bringing in 8.7 boards per contest.
During her team’s state championship run, Poe scored 22.7 points per game. She dropped 28 in the championship game against league rival Honoka`a while also picking up eight rebounds and three blocks.
In West Hawai`i, Kaupu’s senior leadership helped lead Konawaena back to the state championship game, where they lost in overtime to Kamehameha-Kapalama. That veteran presence also helped to nurture along a young freshman, Chanelle Molina, to take over that leadership role.
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Kaupu was an all-tournament selection during the Hawaiian Airlines / HHSAA Division I Girls Basketball Tournament, joining Molina and Hilo High guard Aliyah Pana. She averaged 8.7 points per game during the three-game state tourney.
Top coaching honors went to Hilo’s Ben Pana and James Lukzen of Honoka`a.
Pana took a team that had no seniors to their first state tournament appearance since 1996 and finished in third place. The Vikings went undefeated during the regular season and lost only three teams all year.
Their biggest win may have come in the third place game of the state tournament against perennial power Iolani. Hilo defeated the Raiders 53-49 behind a combined 34-point efford from the Pana sisters to send a message to the state that the Vikings will be a force in the coming seasons.
In West Hawai`i, Lukzen quietly crafted the Dragons into a balanced force in the league. Aided by transfers Keana Kaohimaunu and Hunter Liftee, Honoka`a defeated every Division II opponent that crossed their path with the exception of KS-Hawai`i in both the league and state finals.
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Honoka`a suffered losses to Punahou, Lahainaluna, and Konawaena in non-league play, and fell twice to the Wildcats during the regular season.
According to Big Island Interscholastic Federation basketball coordinator Kalei Namohala, athletic director at Ka`u High School, the boys basketball selections are slated to be released next week.
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