SHS wins first game at Punahou Invite
Evan Dickinson fights for a rebound against Mid Pacific High School in the Punahou Invitational on Oahu, Hawaii.
(Photo courtesy ANN DICKINSON)
The Bulldogs played their first of four games in their Hawaii holiday tournament. They battled through the first half with minimal scoring but came through with a 40-38 win over Mid Pacific in the end.
“It was a close game but I wouldn’t say it was the prettiest,” head coach Brian Childs said.
Punahou High School, where the tournament is held, is a private college prep school where former President Obama went to school. Childs described it as being a huge, college-like campus.
In the first quarter, Sandpoint scored nine points and followed it up with five in the second. All baskets came from Parker Childs, James Bopp and Emerik Jones. At the end of the half the Bulldogs were down 21-14 to Mid Pacific.
“We struggled out of the gate in the first half,” Childs said.
No doubt the party of 17 were going to give up that quickly. The group worked through many road bumps when traveling to the tournament. Delayed and canceled flights forced the Bulldogs to drive from San Diego to Los Angeles International airport so they could make it to Hawaii in time to play in their first game.
“We rented five vans in San Diego and drove everyone north,” Childs said.
The team spent the night in L.A., then departed for Hawaii the next day.
At halftime, Childs reminded the team of how hard they’ve worked and far they’ve traveled to be at the game.
“The kids responded,” Childs said. “We put together a much better half of basketball.”
Rusty Lee, Max Frank, Evan Dickinson and Randy Lane got on the board for the first time in the game. The Bulldogs put down 14 points in the third quarter to Mid Pacific’s 10 points and followed it up with 12 points in the fourth quarter.
“There was a huge difference from the way we started the game to the way we finished,” Childs said.
Sandpoint took the win 40-38 and will play again today against the winner of Oak Wood High School and University Laboratory School.
Sandpoint 9 5 14 12 — 40
Mid Pacific 10 11 10 7 — 38
SANDPOINT — Driggs 0, Pettit 0, Lee 8, Frank 2, VanDenBerg 0, Eacret 0, Dickinson 2, G. Jones 0, Childs 15, Lane 6, Bopp 3, E. Jones 4, Hindberg 0.
MID PACIFIC — Sato 0, Hung 0, Shirakata 0, Chang 0, Kodama 4, Wheeler 0, Yee 11, Nagata 4, Mason 8, Norr 2, Allen 0, Chizer 7, Chun 0, Laa 2, Song 0.