Kadena's Brea Garrett looks for shooting room against Chubu Shogyo's Narika Shimoji during Saturday's semifinal. Kadena won 69-46 and went on to win the ZCAI Holiday Basketball Tournament title with a 69-58 title-game win over top-seeded Misato. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Kadena's Brea Garrett looks for shooting room against Chubu Shogyo's Narika Shimoji during Saturday's semifinal. Kadena won 69-46 and went on to win the ZCAI Holiday Basketball Tournament title with a 69-58 title-game win over top-seeded Misato. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Kadena's Kortez Hixon loses the handle on the ball in front of Naha Kokusai's Kakeru Tamara during Saturday's boys semifinal. Kadena won 66-44 but went on to lose the ZCAI Holiday Basketball Tournament title game 59-58 to Itoman. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Kadena's Brenda Gulley outleaps Chugu Shogyo's Narika Shimoji for a rebound during Saturday's semifinal. Kadena won 69-46 and went on to win the ZCAI Holiday Basketball Tournament title with a 69-58 title-game win over top-seeded Misato. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — There was a little something for all the DODDS and international-school teams participating in Saturday’s Zion Christian Academy International Holiday Basketball Tournament.
Kadena's girls captured the gold medal, and the boys won the silver. They along with Kubasaki’s girls, Okinawa Christian International’s and host ZCAI’s boys also left with some valuable takeaways during the day-long event.
Far more than the Panthers’ girls winning the title was the valuable tournament experience they gained, in preparation for the Far East Division I Tournament in seven weeks at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan.
“It gives us a chance to get in some games,” Kadena coach Willie Ware said. “It’s not often we get a chance to play during the Christmas break. So, any time we get a chance to do that, we’ll take it.”
Kadena won all four of its games, taking the final over top-seeded Misato 69-58 behind a 30-point performance by senior Jasmine Rhodes. Newcomer Brenda Gulley added 10 points. The Wildcats trailed by 25 after three quarters and rallied to cut the final gap to 11.
The tournament gave four players, including newcomer sisters Rheagan and Rhamsey Wyche, who had been away on Christmas break “a chance to get game conditioning,” Ware said. “Okinawa teams like to run. The Wyche girls … it was their first action in three weeks.”
For Kubasaki’s girls, it was a chance to show what they could do facing adversity. In an early pool-play, the Dragons lost Josie Daffin and Briana McRae to ankle injuries, but they rose up to win two of their next three games, losing 56-35 to Misato in the semifinals.
“I’m very proud of my team handling adversity and playing as hard as they did,” first-year Dragons coach Jeremy Walker said. “We took away many positives from this day.”
For ZCAI’s boys, the tournament featured a flair for the dramatic.
Shawn Monroe of Okinawa Christian International hit two foul shots to tie the Lions 58-58 with 1.1 seconds left. The ball was inbounded to ZCAI’s Zechariah Wilson, who let fly from 55 feet as the buzzer sounded … and hit nothing but net for a 61-58 quarterfinal victory.
That meant the same sort of tragedy for OCSI that the Panthers boys suffered in their championship.
Kadena led Itoman by 13 at halftime and 11 after three quarters, and still led by 11 with two minutes left before the Raging Billows rallied to lead 59-58 with 10 seconds left.
The Panthers inbounded and passed underneath to Boysie Gordon for the potential-game-winning layup, but the ball was shot too hard and Itoman rebounded as the buzzer sounded.
