Hawaii Tribune-Herald
Keaau third-year coach Jun Pagala knew he needed to turn a weakness into a strength for his basketball team to have a better shot at reaching the promised land of the postseason.
Pagala wanted his Cougars to improve their free throw shooting after falling short in close games his first two years for the No. 4 seed in the four-team BIIF playoffs, losing out to Kealakehe in 2015 and Hilo last year.
Even though self-belief doesn’t score any points, he knew that valuable intangible was equally important, especially for a team that last reached the HHSAA tournament in 2009 as the league’s Division I runner-up.