LIHU‘E — Tipoff is 7 p.m. Monday for the playoff of the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation girls basketball, Round 2, at the Kaua‘i High School gym. At stake is the Round 2 title following Kaua‘i High School’s 59-38 win over Kapa‘a
LIHU‘E — Tipoff is 7 p.m. Monday for the playoff of the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation girls basketball, Round 2, at the Kaua‘i High School gym.
At stake is the Round 2 title following Kaua‘i High School’s 59-38 win over Kapa‘a and Waimea High School’s 45-36 victory over Island School Friday night.
Should the Red Raiders win Monday night, the KIF title will belong to them because they hold the Round 1 title. But should the Menehune win, another coin flip will decide the playoff game for the KIF title.
Playing before a strong home crowd at its Senior Night, the Red Raiders lost little time setting the pace, outrunning the Warrior wahine 17-4 at the end of the first quarter behind seven-point contributions from its guards, Kristle Henry and Casey Anacleto.
Kaua‘i never looked back, scoring double digits through each of the four periods and by the half, had established a 30-14 lead, Henry continuing to lead the charge with six points and Kawehi Louis-Diamond arousing the audience with the first of her two treys.
Henry finished with a game-high 21 points, including two three-balls followed by Anacleto adding 15 points, including a trey.
Louis-Diamond finished with 10 points, including two three-balls which met with approval from the audience.
Reggie McCabe, one of the Kapa‘a seniors, topped the Warrior scoring with eight points, all dropping in the third frame to lead Kapa‘a’s nine-point third quarter before fouling out early in the fourth period and launching Kapa‘a’s sole trey.
Raquelle Matayoshi, scoring one of the two Kapa‘a field goals in the opening quarter, was joined by Lucyancy Harper, Ethelyn Calvan, Cherrilyn Coloma and Meleane Moala in Kapa‘a’s second quarter.
Coloma, Moala and Harper finished with six points each followed by Matayoshi with five marks, and Ka‘anoi Marshall with four points, two coming in the opening frame.
Rianna Ralston had the big game for Kaua‘i, starting with the Junior Varsity and following the 31-30 seat-hanger win, being upgraded to the varsity squad where she got some playing time in the second half.
Ralston got the sole bucket in the first quarter when Kaua‘i took a 2-1 lead over Kapa‘a before giving up that lead, 10-4 at the half behind the Warriors’ Charlene “Lele” Hanie bucketing four points and joined by Marina Mireles, Tayzia Goodwin and Alicia Gilbert.
Kapa‘a continued to build the lead, ending the third period 27-14 behind Hanie’s six points and Shyanne Almarza entering the scorebooks with five points.
Kaua‘i reversed the trend in the final frame, holding Kapa‘a to just a lone three-ball from Almarza while pocketing 17 points for the one-point edge at the buzzer, Ralston bucketing the go-ahead with just 59 seconds showing on the clock and triggering a flood of cheers from redshirt fans.
Ralston topped all scorers with 15 points in the come-from-behind win followed by Breanne Morikawa adding six points, all coming in the second half.
Hanie and Almarza topped the Kapa‘a scoring with eight points each followed by Gilbert with four points and Goodwin finishing with three points.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.
