Farmers Come Out Strong Off-Island

Boys and Girls Basketball

The Lady Farmers picked up two more wins on their road trip to Seabury last weekend and they clinched the regular season championship with their Friday night victory 45-13.  They won on Saturday 54-29 and are now 10-0 on the season. The last home games of the season will be this weekend at The Barn against Lanai and Head Coach Lee Derouin is looking forward to Senior night for the Girls on Friday.

“The girls really took care of business in both games at Seabury and played with great intensity at both ends of the floor,” he said. “We are looking forward to playing back at home at the Barn with Girls Senior night on Friday the 29th at 7 p.m.”

The Girls MIL championships will be held in Hana this year starting on Feb. 4 and the Girls State Basketball Championship will be in Hilo this year Feb. 9-13.

The Boys basketball team lost an overtime thriller on Friday night at Seabury 44-41 and also lost on Saturday 57-36, which tightens up the race for the Division II state berth.  Seabury is in first place with a 7-1 record and looks to clinch the regular season title this weekend against Hana. Molokai is 7-3 and hosts Lanai at The Barn this weekend.

Head Coach Mike Kahale was happy with Friday’s overtime performance.

“The boys played great defense Friday night and put us in a great position to win,” he said. “We were able to battle back after being down by double digits at the half by forcing turnovers and scoring in transition.  With a just a few seconds left on the clock we were able to tie the game at the line and force an overtime period.  Unfortunately this was where we struggled as well.  We missed a bunch of free throws down the stretch ultimately costing us the game.  Despite the loss I was proud of their effort.”

Saturday was different story but Kahale said there is still hope.

“We had some starters guys get into early foul trouble and a key injury that kind of took us out of our game,” he said. “But that’s life, we have to be able to fight through adversity and be resilient.  We’ll go back to the drawing board, look at some game film, and make some adjustments.  We learned a lot about ourselves this weekend.  How we come together as a team will be the big question.”

After this week’s home games and their senior night on Saturday night, the Farmers will have a week off before heading to Maui for the MIL DII Championship Tournament, where they will have another opportunity to win the one and only DII State berth. The Boys Basketball State Championships is on Oahu the third week of February.

Swimming

The Boys and Girls Swimming team had a productive weekend, according to head coach Jess Ford. Ford was happy with the team’s performance.

“We had some great swims on both days, we also had some tough ones and some good maintenance overall with our times and places,” she said. “One of the highlights was Keao Ross in the 50 freestyle where he had his best time of the year, 23.14 seconds.”   Ross was edged out by Jared Gaastra from Lahainaluna 23.04 seconds in a thrilling finish.

The MIL Swimming Championships will be held next week on Maui, and the State Swimming Championships will be held in Hilo the second week of February.

Canoe Paddling

Girl’s Canoe Paddling beat Seabury in their first heat of the season’s fourth regatta last Saturday and then lost to them in the final by one second.  Head Coach Stefani Hubbard says that is just what the team needed.

“Beating Seabury in our preliminary heat was just the push that my girls needed,” she said. “We’ve been trying to close in on them all season. The finals were a little disheartening for the girls as we had them beat the whole race. Right at the end, a wave came in that pushed Seabury to less than a second ahead of us.”

Regatta number five is this weekend on Maui and the State Canoe Racing Championships will be held on Oahu the first weekend of February.