LIHU‘E — The Waimea High School girls basketball team pulled away in the final four minutes on Wednesday during a Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation game at the new Kaua‘i High School gymnasium. Waimea finished the varsity girls skirmish with a 47-39 win.
With four minutes showing on the game clock, Menehune Hailey Mata threaded to the inside for a bucket to break the 35-35 logjam. The supporting cast of Menehune poured in 10 additional points to Kaua‘i’s four marks to sound the buzzer of the eight-point victory.
Earlier in the night, Waimea took control of the contest until Kaua‘i found its roots and knotted the contest 13-13 in the second quarter. Mata launched a bomb from outside the 3-point arc, her only score in that frame, to break the stalemate.
The Red Raiders answered by outscoring Waimea 11-9 in the second quarter and ended the half chasing three marks, 22-18.
The seesaw continued into the third frame when Anaiah Mendez broke a 13-13 tie with a 3-ball and led Kaua‘i to outscore Waimea, 13-10 in the stanza, led by a pair of buckets from Cairee Quinones. Kaua‘i finished the third stanza down 32-31.
Following Mata’s tiebreaker midway through the final frame, the Menehune went on to outscore Kaua‘i 15-8 en route to the win behind the high pointing of Mata, who finished with 21 points, including four bombs from the outside.
Stephannie Companero added eight points, including a 3-ball, and Kiaura Rita, a bull on Menehune rebounding, added seven points.
Lailah Kalani, notching eight marks in the second half, finished with 10 points for the Red Raiders along with Mendez, who marked a pair of treys in her 10-point total.
During the junior varsity matchup earlier in the evening, Waimea’s Wailana Tanigawa-Christian marked 20 points toward the Menehunes 59-19 win over the Red Raiders.
Cyani Bagaoisan-Rita finished with 13 points, and La‘akea Kauwe added a dozen points. Taylor Duran and Lily Corpuz each put away five points for Kaua‘i.
Kaua‘i High School will host Kapa‘a High School at the new Kaua‘i High School gymnasium on Friday. The JV game tips off at 5:30 p.m. The varsity contest tips off 25 minutes after the end of the JV game.
