{"id":19103,"date":"2013-02-06T23:23:57","date_gmt":"2013-02-07T09:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekpro\/?p=19103"},"modified":"2013-02-06T23:24:09","modified_gmt":"2013-02-07T09:24:09","slug":"kalaheo-builds-strong-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekpro\/kalaheo-builds-strong-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Kalaheo Builds Strong Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"
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During his own playing days, Kalaheo\u2019s player-turned-coach Alika Smith was known as a prolific scorer, but he also guarded the other team\u2019s best player on the defensive end.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, Smith has a special appreciation for Mustang seniors Derick Morgan and Shem Sukumaran.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe old cliche\u0301 that defense wins championships holds true,\u201d said Smith. \u201cIt all starts on the defensive end. Lately, we\u2019ve been doing a great job, defensively. Derick is one of the best \u2014 if not the best \u2014 defenders that I\u2019ve seen in a long time. He has the want to guard the other team\u2019s best player, and it\u2019s the same with Shem. Those two set the tone for us each and every game.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kalaheo, which was to close out its OIA basketball season on Monday versus Kaiser, gave up an average of just 33.8 points through its first eight games. The Mustangs hope to continue their stellar defensive play this week when the OIA Red tournament begins. (Pairings were to be revealed after press time.) Kalaheo seeks to win back-to-back OIA (and state) titles \u2014 albeit in different divisions. The<\/p>\n

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Mustangs won both the OIA and Division II state championships last year before being promoted to Division I in the off-season.<\/p>\n

Dating back to last season, the team has gone 48-10 overall, including pre- season games.<\/p>\n

Only the flu bug has undermined Kalaheo\u2019s momentum this year, but Smith expects his full roster to be at 100 percent for the post-season. \u201cFor a week-and-a-half, we had seven or eight guys at practice, sometimes a different seven or eight. Silila Tucker and Kalani Green are two who have played really well in the absence of others. We had a lot of kids step up.<\/p>\n

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Now that we\u2019re healthy again, we\u2019re looking forward to the home stretch.\u201d Kalaheo\u2019s starting lineup consists of Josh Ko (8.7 points per game), Kupaa Harrison, Kalei Zuttermeister (8.9 ppg) in addition to Sukumaran and Morgan (team-leading 11 ppg).<\/p>\n

Veteran leadership and the ability to dictate the pace through their defense have been big reasons for their success, according to Smith. \u201cAnytime you get into a five-on-five in a half-court set, it is going to be tough to score,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re best when we get steals and create havoc and get into the open floor. We have a veteran group \u2014 they\u2019ve been through the battles \u2014 and they understand that sometimes we have to grind it out and get stop after stop after stop (on the defensive end).\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During his own playing days, Kalaheo\u2019s player-turned-coach Alika Smith was known as a prolific scorer, but he also guarded the..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windward","category-windward-oahu-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nKalaheo Builds Strong Defense - MidWeek<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekpro\/kalaheo-builds-strong-defense\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kalaheo Builds Strong Defense - MidWeek\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"During his own playing days, Kalaheo\u2019s player-turned-coach Alika Smith was known as a prolific scorer, but he also guarded the..\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekpro\/kalaheo-builds-strong-defense\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MidWeek\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-07T09:23:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-02-07T09:24:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\\\/midweekpro\\\/kalaheo-builds-strong-defense\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\\\/midweekpro\\\/kalaheo-builds-strong-defense\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Kalaheo Builds Strong Defense\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-02-07T09:23:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-02-07T09:24:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\\\/midweekpro\\\/kalaheo-builds-strong-defense\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":423,\"articleSection\":[\"Windward\",\"Windward Oahu Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\\\/midweekpro\\\/kalaheo-builds-strong-defense\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\\\/midweekpro\\\/kalaheo-builds-strong-defense\\\/\",\"name\":\"Kalaheo Builds Strong Defense - 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