Moa Best and her E.J. King teammates could have easily hidden behind the excuse that the MVP was gone and they didn’t measure up to the Far East Division II champions of last year.

But the senior guard said she wouldn’t hear of it. Neither did her teammates, nor her father and coach for four high school seasons, McKinzy Best.

“We didn’t really talk about it, but we always tried to focus on what’s ahead of us,” Best said. “Look at what we have and go from there.”

Rather than miss the players who had departed, the Cobras made the best use of what they had.

And they captured a second straight DODEA-Japan season title, a third straight Western Japan Athletic Association tournament title and repeated their D-II championship of a year earlier, beating Christian Academy Japan 45-38 on Feb. 5.

“Our motto was ‘no excuses, try harder,’” Best said of the team’s mindset during the season. “We didn’t make excuses. We just tried harder, and as we tried harder, we got better as the season went along.”

As she had all season, Best led the Cobras with 30 points in the final and was named overall Most Valuable Player and offensive MVP of the D-II tournament as the Cobras capped a 24-3 season.

Best, one of two team captains, averaged 24.5 points, 13 assists and 7 steals per game and capped her four years as a starting guard for the Cobras with 1,921 points.

For all that, Best has been named Star and Stripes Pacific girls basketball Athlete of the Year. It’s the second straight year a Cobra has earned the honor, following Maliwan Schinker in 2024.

Even without Schinker, the Cobras still had plenty of returning veterans, including swingman Pia Lagrito and forwards Joanna Hall and Claire Del Pilar.

But the scoring came from Moa Best and her senior twin sister, Miu, who scored 95 percent of the Cobras’ points.

To prepare for defending the Far East title, the Cobras took two road trips that McKinzy and Moa Best said were crucial to the team’s development. They played Osan and Daegu at Osan on Nov. 16, then the American School In Japan Kanto Classic in mid-January.

Though they lost twice at ASIJ and had close calls in several other games, “win or lose, we came to play and she (Moa) came to play,” McKinzy Best said.

“Every one of those teams was tough. We had a lot of respect for them. We learned from what was behind us, but we focused on what was ahead.”

It was at ASIJ that the Cobras played the same CAJ team that beat King 53-43 two seasons ago in the D-II final. The Cobras beat the Knights 51-43 in a Kanto Classic pool-play game and helped King prepare for their next meeting, in the Far East D-II final, Moa Best said.

“That set up a foundation for us,” Moa Best said. “We knew where they were and where we were, we saw our strengths and their weaknesses, so we could bring (that knowledge) to Far East.”

King’s last loss was in Far East D-II pool play against Yokota 34-32. From there, it was all Cobras, as they won three playoff games to clinch the title – the Cobras’ seventh championship on the Best sisters’ watch.

“That’s a pretty good high school career,” McKinzy Best said. “She did well and her sister was right there with her.”

But it might not be over yet, if the dreams Moa says she has come true one day.

“I’m going to miss it a lot,” she said of having played her last game in Cobras uniform. “I was thinking I might want to coach one day. I want to become a DODEA teacher. I want to pass that on to others.”

The Best file

Moa Best

Age — 18

Hometown — Sasebo, Japan.

Other sports besides basketball — Tennis (former Far East champion), softball.

Favorite school subject — Math.

Least favorite school subject — English

Favorite form of media entertainment — Pop music.

Favorite athlete — Caitlin Clark.

Favorite performer — Marisha Wallace.