KAPA‘A — The Kapa‘a High School girls basketball program swept the Monday night series against Kaua‘i High School during the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation outing at Bernice Hundley Gym.
After trailing for most of the 32 minutes, the junior varsity Warriors gained their first lead in the final four minutes en route to a 33-26 win over the JV Red Raiders.
The varsity Lady Warriors launched 11 bombs from outside the three-point arc to outgun the varsity Red Raiders, 70-20.
Kaua‘i High was limited to just a pair from the outside, a game-opening trey by Jazmine Constantino and a third frame bomb from Joliena Cumlat.
The Raiders stayed close, chasing just five marks at the end of the opening frame, 10-5. But the Warriors turned on the scoring turbochargers and posted double-digit scoring in all of the remaining quarters, led by Olivia Malafu finishing with 10 buckets for 20 points.
Annie Nizo followed with 15 points on five bombs from the outside, the crowd igniting in cheer on her first trey in the opening quarter to answer Constantino’s bomb.
Kyla Hopton notched three treys toward her game-total 14 points, 12 marks coming in the second quarter when Kapa‘a pulled ahead to a 37-16 lead at the break.
Lailah Kalani topped the Raiders’ scoring on a trio of buckets, and Jadelyn Renolds finished with five points.
During the JV contest, Kaua‘i High’s Kailea Sakau-Masulit set the scoring pace early with back-to-back treys for the early 8-4 bulge at the end of the first quarter.
Following three quarters and several ties, Kapa‘a marked its first lead of the contest with less than five minutes showing on the game clock when Maile Maglinti dropped a bucket in traffic for a 26-24 lead. A charity pair and bucket by Trinity Guillen eked out the JV Warrior lead 31-24 before Sakau-Masulit answered with a bucket with 1:41 showing in the game.
Maglinti’s bucket with 30 ticks remaining iced the 33-26 JV Warrior victory.
Maglinti and Guillen topped the JV Warrior scoring with eight points apiece, followed by Raine Hurd contributing six marks.
Sakau-Masulit finished with a game-high 15 points to lead the JV Raiders, followed Kitana Bonila and Naveah Eclipse-Ancheta each tucking in five points.
According to the KIF schedule, Kaua‘i next hosts Waimea on Wednesday. Because Waimea has no JV team, Kapa‘a JV will tip off against the Kaua‘i JV starting at 5:30 p.m. with the varsity Raiders tipping off against Waimea 20 minutes after the end of the JV contest.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 808-245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
