Along with the camera crew from OC16, basketball fans packed HBA’s Dan Liu gymnasium on January 13 for the school’s annual homecoming games. The girls varsity team was able to break their tied record with the University Lab Junior Bows, coming out on top with a dominant win (57-18), while the boys varsity team fell short to the Damien Monarchs (57-49), losing their 3-game winning streak.
The Lady Eagles improved to a 7-2 record for in-season play with this homecoming win, where junior Ally Wada lead the team with 11 points, and sophomore Kyley Nakagawa and junior Katelyn Nakagawa both contributed 9 points each to the total.
Coming out slow, the Lady Eagles trailed midway through the first quarter, but was able to push back and come out with a 13-7 lead at the end of it. Katelyn Nakagawa said, “We just needed to block out the crowd and TV crew and just play our own game.”
In the second quarter, the Lady Eagles began to take off with a 21-0 run through the quarter, which came to an end when Tyra Goo Sun of the Junior Bows hit a 3-point dagger at the buzzer to send it to halftime.
Each of the 17 girls on the team was able to get a chance to play in the game with 11 of them contributing to the scoreboard. The Lady Eagles won the third quarter 14-1 and closed out the game 9-7 to seal their win.
This being the team’s last home game for the season, all three senior girls, Alexys Adriance, Kiara Chun, and CJ Ramos, were all able to take their senior shots and enjoy a final victory at home. Freshman Alexis Dang said, “My favorite part of the homecoming game was at the end when we set up a play for CJ to shoot a three pointer.” Ramos, a post player, had not taken a three all year, but knocked down her first three in the fourth quarter against the Junior Bows.
Following the girls game, the boys varsity team looked to prevail over the Damien Monarchs but ended up with a tough 8-point loss with both teams moving to 3-1 in their season records. HBA junior Micah Mitchell led all scorers with 25 points followed by HBA’s substitute starting point guard Adam Kikuta with 10 points. Kikuta, a sophomore, was called on to fill senior Ty Minatoya’s starting position since Minatoya was sidelined with a partially torn quad injury.
In the first two quarters, the game was neck and neck with the score at 24-24 at halftime. The game was tied again at 30 midway through the third quarter. Kikuta said, “The major turning point was when the inbounds turnovers occurred.” These turnovers developed into a Damien run led by Jayden Peters-DeLaura, resulting in a 45-36 deficit with five minutes left in the fourth quarter for the Eagles. The Eagles tried to push back, but the Monarchs were able to keep their lead to close out the game at 57-49.
Following the homecoming game, the girls varsity team went on to win their last two games of the season against Hanalani and La Pietra, finishing third in the ILH Division 2 league with a 9-2 record. At the post season state tourney, they were not able to defend their Division 2 state championship title, losing to Moanalua 50-47 in overtime play during their tourney opener. The Lady Eagles finished the tourney in seventh place, with a 60-17 win over Lana‘i. The boys varsity team finished the rest of their season with a 5-7 record.
