Boys basketball

If only there was a time machine, Christmas Togiai Jr. would go back to that moment before the knee injury. It was a crucial play in a close game with Kamehameha ahead of Kahuku with less than 3 minutes left in the state-tournament semifinal round. Togiai drove the right side, as he had earlier in the game for a bucket, and collapsed. He left the game, returned with his knee wrapped up, but couldn’t finish. The Warriors won the game, […]

If you’ve never heard of Peniel Educational Ministries before, you aren’t the first. Zion Kese has spent countless time explaining the school he attends. He is also patient when he’s asked how to spell Peniel. “It’s like pen, which you write with, and ‘iel’. It’s just a small Christian school in Pearl City,” he said. Kese put his school on the basketball map on Saturday with a resounding performance at the Hawaii Senior Classic in Moanalua gym. The 6-foot-2 wing […]

There are a multitude of great plot lines following the OIA/public schools’ 94-87 comeback win over the ILH/private schools in the Hawaii Senior Classic on Saturday at Moanalua. The most surprising, though, is Elijah McGruder. Moanalua’s blue-collar banger was never the tallest or biggest, but he was often very effective in the paint as his team won the OIA title. But that was as a classic role player. On Saturday, McGruder exploded for 21 points and 10 rebounds, scoring 17 […]

Between the surgeries, from birth to sophomore year, from his heart to his ears, Malosi Viena has endured the improbable path to success.  It’s not just the 3.2 grade-point average — 3.7 this year — and the real possibility of playing basketball at RIT or Gallaudet University. It’s not the part-time jobs he keeps to enjoy his own spending money. It’s not even the 17-point scoring average just two years after suffering a head injury that displaced a cochlear implant. […]

(Note: This post was written before the state championships and is a venture into what the best teams in the state, Divisions I and II, could have done in another hoopworld universe. It does not reflect the results of the actual state tournaments, nor the key turning points, such as injuries.) One woman, one man can make a difference. Kahuku learned this. Kalaheo, yes. Damien, for sure. The question is, who can adapt? Who will survive and advance? The ecosystem […]

The throne was occupied by Kamehameha for six weeks. In the end, however, defending state champion Maryknoll reigns supreme again. Maryknoll collected all 10 first-place votes and closed the 2019-20 season at No. 1 in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Boys Basketball Top 10 after sweeping through the state tournament, notching a 46-33 win over Kamehameha in the final. Maryknoll finished the season 31-4. Kamehameha (26-5) garnered every second-place vote to finish No. 2. The only newcomer to the final poll is […]

The morning after was still somber for the Kamehameha Warriors, but there is still gratefulness. Kamehameha saw a dream season come up short with a 46-33 loss to Maryknoll in the Division I final of the Snapple/HHSAA Boys Basketball State Championships. Coach Larry Park confirmed that leading scorer Christmas Togiai suffered an ACL injury during the semifinal win over Kahuku. The team found out after Togiai had his right knee examined. “He went to the doctor yesterday (Friday). He started […]