Closing the Book: No. 6 Kamehameha (13-12, 4-8 ILH)
vs. Top 10: 7-12 (.368)
Top 10 wins: LAH, KON, PUN, Antelope, PUN, PUN, PUN
Top 10 losses: KON, IOL, Mater Dei, MS, IOL, Heritage, MS, MS, IOL, MS, IOL, MS
Non-Top 10 losses: None
Playoffs: 0-1
The four-team format of ILH girls basketball was crushing.
All four teams were in the Star-Advertiser Top 10, and all four were worthy of state-tournament berths. However, the league was allotted two berths as accorded by the HHSAA by-laws — the ratio formula — and Kamehameha finished third. On the outside looking in.
The heartbreak couldn’t be unbroken by a No. 6 ranking in the final poll. Gone via graduation will be Malie Marfil (Alaska-Anchorage), Camille Feary (Biola), Lagi Sua-Godinet, Haley Masaki among a solid senior corps.
The COVID-19 outbreak means there will be less time to assess talent in the Warriors’ system. Coach Pua Straight has been busy as a health and physical education teacher, but the chance to see potential varsity players has been erased by the lockdown.
“I teach freshmen at Kamehameha. Our schedule is 7:30 to 3:30. It’s a little bit different because I film the lectures and post the assignments for the kids,” she said. “I film a workout video for the kids to do everything. They have a weekly log. They’re supposed to do a minimum of at least three workouts a week. Time lapse video, screen shot using an app.”
A year after nearly upsetting ‘Iolani in the state championship game, with All-State player of the year Kalina Obrey at the forefront, the Warriors battled through ups and downs in the rugged ILH.
Coach Straight chatted about the highs and lows on Wednesday.
Review: Starters and key rotation/role players:
Malie Marfil, 10 ppg, voted No. 10 All-State Fab 15, voted No. 8 All-Defense, 5-8, Sr. Straight: “Mālie was a very versatile player for us. She is an extremely explosive player who can handle the ball well, attack the rim, shoot off the catch, shoot off the dribble, and create plays for her teammates. She is also a great on-ball lock down defender.
"The memory that sticks out most in my head was before our first Saturday game in the McKinley preseason tournament. When we arrived at the gym before the game, one of the referees pointed to Mālie and said, ‘I give that girl credit, she works hard. I just saw her shooting around at the gym in Nanakuli at 6 o’clock this morning.’ I always knew Mālie worked hard, but in that moment, I think I gained a new level of respect for her work ethic and commitment to working on her craft.
“I will definitely miss having her on the court for our team, however, what I will miss most about Mālie is her attitude and personality. She takes correction so well, and is such a positive girl who is always cracking jokes, smiling, and laughing.”
Camille Feary, 11 ppg, 5-7, Jr.
Straight: “As soon as you said Camille, the word that instantly popped in my head is competitor. She is so competitive, the most on the team. She’s such an interesting girl. She is almost like a silent killer. You don’t know she’s doing a lot, but you look at the stat sheet and she had a double-double. She was our leading scorer and rebounder throughout the season. She was huge for us. As an off-guard, ball handing is something she can improve on. She’s already tough and she gets rebounds battling in the paint.
“I don’t think she always gets the credit she deserves. She flies under the radar. Even toward the end of the season when Lagi was out, she had to guard post players a lot. Whatever position we put her in, she just battled. Tough. Coming back, she has the most experience. We’re losing four starters. We want her to take on that leadership role. I’ve seen it a lot at our practices. When we split up, she can be a real good leader. She started this year and played a lot of minutes as a sophomore. We’re really relying heavily on her for leadership.”
Lagi Sua-Godinet, 11 ppg, voted All-State Fab 15 honorable mention, 5-9, Sr.
Straight: “Just this week, two college coaches called me about her, and another one will call soon, I think. She hasn’t decided yet, but she has options. It was a real bummer for her when she got injured in that Punahou game. That really hurt for her to go out like that her senior year. She’s always had a lot of playing time. She started as a freshman. Her role has been more rebounding, then last year and this year she had a bigger role on the offensive end. She’s very versatile, can be back to the basket, be on the 3-point line and take it to the basket. She’s got so much potential. I’m excited to see how her game develops when she’s in college. She’s very athletic, explosive, quick off the ground, quick first step.”
Haley Masaki, 7 ppg, 5-4, Sr.
Straight: “My point guard. I was just talking to a college coach about her, too. She’s a true point guard. As a (former) point guard, I can appreciate her. She’s the one who can really set the team up. She’s a very high-IQ player. She’s a pass-first player and sometimes I had to edge her to be a little more aggressive for us. That gets her passes open more. In a lot of games, she hit big 3s for us, so when she needed to step up for us in terms of scoring, against Maryknoll, she came through. We will definitely miss her.”
Esther Naum, 4 ppg, 5-8, Sr.
Straight: “Our seniors, it’s a bummer, four of them will graduate. She’s really long, left-handed, which is an advantage sometimes. She can hit the 3 and slash to the bucket. She’s a long, athletic player for us. We weren’t really that tall, and Esther played the 4. She’s set to go to Biola University, D-II.”
Alize Pratt, 2 ppg, 5-8, Jr.
Straight: “She was on our team last year, as well. She’s probably one of the best athletes on the team. She had a knee injury early in the year, but she came back and it was a little bit difficult for her. In that last game we played against Maryknoll, we had a pretty specific game plan to win without Lagi in there, and Alize was huge in that game. We actually didn’t play bad, and she came up huge. Maryknoll played really well. She’s long, athletic, great defender, and her mentality for defending is great. When she decides to lock down, she can do that. She’s a big reason we beat Lahainaluna last year. She was on Susi (Namoa), and Alize locked down.”
Maddison Mangalao, 3 ppg, 5-2, So.
Straight: “She was on the team last year. We have two little, quick point guards in Maddie and Kylie. She was playing behind Haley for the past couple of years, but I think she’s going to have a huge role next season. She’s so quick, really strong ball handling skills. She really pounds the ball hard, and she can get to the paint anytime she wants, and she’s really good at kicking the ball out. I think she’ll step into the role really well. She was the only freshman on the team last year.”
Kylie Kamauoha-Phillips, 5-2, So.
Straight: “She didn’t always get that many minutes. She’s really fast, unbelievably fast. I’m just excited to see what she can do last year. When Lagi went down, I talked with Kylie and told her we’re going to try to go small and quick. That Maryknoll game, she played a lot more minutes and she had a crazy game.
Did the rotation change?
Straight: “For the most part, we solidified our rotation. If we saw one girl who was doing really good in a game, we would leave her in. And we had to try some things when Lagi went down. Now what does it look like for us? We decided to go small those two games. Punahou and Maryknoll. It didn’t matter against Punahou if we won or lost, we were third anyway, so I said, let’s try Maddie in that game. That worked out really well, so let’s do it. We tried to create a lot of turnovers, but Maryknoll shot so well, and we played so fast, we had more turnovers more than I would’ve liked to.”
What or who surprised you most?
Straight: “I think two people really surprised me. Malie’s leadership. She really stepped up as a leader. In the offseason, she really focused on basketball. You could see it’s her life. Camille, she’s a game-time player. She doesn’t panic. She really stepped up to fill that offensive role and grab all those boards. Towards the end of the season, she really started coming into her own as a leader. She was always one of the younger ones. To see her come into that leadership role at our practices was really cool to see.”
What were the most adverse challenges?
Straight: “I think the biggest challenge was, after making the state championship game (in 2019), everybody’s expectations were really high. They had the mentality of we were going to pick right up from where we left off. We took all season to peak in that (2019) championship game. Ending on that note, we felt like we literally had it in our hands. This year, when we weren’t performing as well, it caused a little bit of stress. I think that was the biggest challenge. We had a meeting about, how much we have to trust in the process. Do you remember how hard we had to work to get to that level? They wanted to get back to that game so much, they put so much pressure on themselves. I feel like it got to us a little during the season. That was the hardest thing this season. Playing a team four times, it’s as much a mental battle as it is a physical battle.”
What was the peak? What was the low?
Straight: “In talking to the girls, one of the best parts of the season was being able to travel together. That was huge for them in terms of building relationships. Everywhere we went, we went as an ohana, making reservations for 45 people. Basketball and sports aren’t just about winning. That was the highlight of our season. We came back from that as one basketball ohana. The low was just not being able to make it back to the state tournament. Even last year, the road to make it there was so hard, it was harder getting there than it was to get to the championship game. A lot of tears after (losing to Maryknoll). It wasn’t a lack of effort, just the cards didn’t fall in our favor.”
What will you miss about this group?
Straight: “This group has played together since seventh grade. They’re a really close bunch. They had smaller roles when they were a little bit younger. Just to see them step up as leaders of our whole program is so big. They were in the program when I was coaching JV, when I started.”
What are you anticipating for offseason and next season?
Straight: “We’re probably going to be smaller and quicker next year. Everything right now is bigger than basketball. Summer league, we’re not sure yet what’s going to happen.
“We definitely have our eye on a few kids. We’ll see how they develop. We brought up some of our JV girls at the end of the season. We started up with just 10. Brought up two from the JV and we have our eye on our intermediate girls. We have a very, very strong seventh- and eighth-grade class. We wanted to use summer league as a gauge, but we’re probably not going to have that option. For the girls returning, the four that got lots of minutes, they’ll be expected to have bigger roles.
“They actually cancelled in-person summer school. I’m assuming if nobody’s allowed to be on campus in the summer, there’s no summer league. But there’s a meeting tomorrow (Thursday) that’s going to confirm that (or not). With all the ILH rules, the summer is all we get to spend with the team. We're lucky. Some people didn't get to have a season."
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