St. Joseph’s Furious Rally Stuns Honoka’a

The Honoka’a Dragons were in prime position to pull off the biggest upset of the night, holding on to all of the momentun with under two minutes to play and a seven point lead, before watching it all go away in a 49-48 heartbreaking loss to St. Joseph in the Division II quarterfinals of the KTA Super Stores / BIIF Boys Basketball Tournament.

Honoka’a tied the game with 2:40 to play in the game off of a missed shot by the Cardinals’ Sebastian Ohara-Saft, and in  transition, Isaiah Meyer drained a clutch three pointer. On the next posession, St. Joseph’s Christian Kaui committed a turnover, leading to a transition runner in the middle of the lane by Alika Alip, giving the Dragons a 43-41 lead.

St. Joseph used a timeout to stop the momentum, but immediately after the timeout, Kaui couldn’t inbound the ball before the referee counted to five seconds, leading to a violation. On the inbounds play, Honoka’a post player Wayne Vaoga drained a 16-foot baseline jumper to continue the run.

The bad luck for St. Joseph didn’t end there. Kaui committed three personal fouls in the span of thirty seconds, the last one disqualifying him from the game. The frustrated Kaui appeared to say something, which caught the attention of official Pat Pacheco, who issued a technical foul. Alika Alip hit both technical free throws, along with one of the two free throws from the personal foul, to make it 48-41 Dragons.

St. Joseph would not go away. Sebastian Ohara-Saft connected on a straightaway contested three pointer with :51.6 remaining to pull the Cardinals within four.

And then, things got controversial. Honoka’a appeared to be called for a ten-second backcourt violation by official Pacheco with :41.2 remaining. A timeout was then called by Honoka’a coach Cheyenne Meyer. After the timeout, officials signaled that it was the Dragons’ ball, much to the surprise of the Cardinals’ bench, as they, along with the crowd were unaware that the timeout was issued right before the ten-second violation was whistled. The inbound was sent down the floor to Cjay Carvalho, and St. Joseph’s Thomas Fairman made the defensive play of the game by recoveing to swat the shot away, leading to a transition three-pointer made by Isaac Pacheco from the left wing to get SJS within one, 48-47, with :28.4 remaining.

The Cardinals got one more chance to get the ball back, and got it in the hands of Ohara-Saft, who was fouled in the act of shooting with :6.9 remaining. Officials deemed that he was behind the three point line, which was a questionable call, and Ohara-Safe made two of the three free throws to give St. Joseph a 49-48 lead. The last minute heave by Honoka’a didn’t go, and the Cardinals finished the game on an 8-0 run to win.

Honoka’a ends their year with a record of 7-11 (4-7 BIIF), while St. Joseph continues on to face Hawaii Prep. That game will take place Friday at 3 pm at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium, with the winner getting a berth to the Hawaiian Airlines / HHSAA Boys State Basketball Championships.

Honoka’a 9 10 10 19 – 48

St. Joseph 10 12 13 14 49

TEAM STATS:

Honoka’a: 18-43 FG (41.9%), 5-16 3PT (31.3%), 7-11 FT (63.6%)

St. Joseph: 16-38 FG (42.1%), 3-8 3PT (37.5%), 14-24 FT (58.3%)

LEADING SCORERS: Honoka’a – Alika Alip 19, Isaiah Meyer 11, Kepa Jordan 6, Wayne Vaoga 6, Brooks McVey 4, Keanu Freitas 2. St. Joseph – Sebastian Ohara-Saft 15, Thomas Fairman 15, Cody Andrade 8, Christian Kaui 6, Isaac Pacheco 5.