Despite missing two of their top players due to illness, the remaining 7 JV players pulled off a stunning 38-36 upset against Maui High before a bipartisan crowd at the Lahaina Civic Center.
Down 12-20 at the half, the Lunas were sparked by Harvey Ganoot who scored all of his 10 points in the third quarter to rally the Lunas to within 1, 28-29 at the end of 3. In the fourth quarter, Emerson Flores took over, scoring 7 of his team-high 16 points in the final 4 minutes. His corner 3 tied the game at 32-all. After Maui High took a 36-34 lead with about a minute left, the Lunas thought they had a steal but the official ruled that a time out was called by Maui High. With Maui High threatening to stall and run out the clock, Joa Navarro broke up an inbounds pass that was thrown to the backcourt for a steal and fed a streaking Emerson Flores for the And-1 layup to tie the game at 36-all. Unfortunately, Flores missed the free throw but the Lunas got the rebound and retained possession despite the referee who-shall-remain-nameless’ “travel” call. The corner three attempt by the Lunas Euri Tariga missed and Maui High raced downcourt to try to win the game. A pass from Maui High’s Afemui to a cutting Kash Palma was picked off by Emerson Flores, who went coast-to-coast for the lay-up to give the Lunas their first lead of the game at 38-36. Maui High called timeout and instead of 0.6 seconds, the refs put 6 huge seconds back on the clock. Maui High’s shot attempt fell short and the Lunas escaped with the hard-earned victory.
In addition to Emerson Flores’ 16 points and Harvey Ganoot’s 10 points, Carldave Salem and James Heile added 5 points apiece (although Salem should have had more points/assists except for some offensive foul calls that went against him). Nice win for the JV boys!