WAIMEA — The Kapa‘a Warriors needed a win to assure themselves at least a playoff in Wednesday night’s first half finale against the Waimea Menehune at Waimea High School. What they came away with was their best performance to this
WAIMEA — The Kapa‘a Warriors needed a win to assure themselves at least a playoff in Wednesday night’s first half finale against the Waimea Menehune at Waimea High School.
What they came away with was their best performance to this point of the season in a 54-31 victory. The team was sharp on both ends and managed to use its size to pick apart the Waimea defense.
They will now face the Kaua‘i Red Raiders for a third time to determine the first-half champion. The game will be played at 7 p.m. Saturday night at Kapa‘a High School. The venue was determined by a coin flip, according to Kapa‘a athletic director Greg Gonsalves.
Kaua‘i (5-1) topped the Island School Voyagers by a 57-29 score, Wednesday at Island School.
Kaua‘i’s Bryan Andres scored 11 points, followed by Davone Florence’s 10.
Island’s Canaan Higa notched 13 for the Voyagers (0-6).
Kapa‘a forward Duke Pauli led the way with a game-high 18 points, all of which came in the first three quarters of action.
The Warriors (5-1) executed their zone offense very well, often bringing a player to the foul line and employing a high-low attack, which typically ended up with Pauli finishing underneath or getting to the free-throw line.
Forward Spam Lindsey added 10 points for Kapa‘a, followed by nine from Kekoa Colipano and six apiece from Sean Shigematsu and Jundell Sagucio.
Point guard Willis Batol had three and James Padre netted a pair to complete the Kapa‘a tally.
Malcolm Carter was the high-scorer for Waimea (2-4), finishing the night with nine points. Carter was in foul trouble for much of the game and never really seemed to find an offensive rhythm.
Paul Oligo, Xavier Guirao and VJ Carineo all added six points. Bransen Agu and Clifton Callejo finished with three and one point, respectively.
The Waimea zone defense had trouble handling Pauli from the start, as he had back-to-back buckets to give the Warriors an early 8-3 lead.
Oligo knocked two 3-pointers in the first quarter to keep his team close, the second tightening the score to 13-11.
But a Colipano triple at the end of the period gave Kapa‘a the 18-12 advantage after one.
The Menehune never managed to get any closer than that for the rest of the night and Lindsey had two straight hoops, the second coming at the halftime buzzer, to send his team to the locker room with a 30-17 lead.
The Warriors’ offensive precision continued early in the third against the zone, then once Waimea switched into a man-to-man defense, they used the pick and roll as their new weapon.
Point guard Bradley Coloma used a Pauli screen and then dropped a perfect feed to the big man for a deuce. Batol then ran the same play with Shigematsu for a bucket and a 44-24 lead, the team’s biggest to that point of the game, which it upped to 22 to end the third quarter.
Kapa‘a mixed up its lineup for most of the fourth quarter with the two teams playing evenly for the final eight minutes.
Padre had the final highlight when he almost lost possession, regained the ball as he laid on his back and threw a downcourt pass from the floor to a wide-open Sagucio for an uncontested layup.
In the boys’ JV game that preceded the varsity, the Waimea Menehune came away with a 53-51 overtime win, as Kaili Schumacher-Lagundino had the game-winning bucket with 13 seconds to play in the extra period.
Schumacher-Lagundino also scored a game-high 20 points. He was followed on the Menehune side by Brandon Palacio’s 13 and Niko Delos Reyes’ 12. Garret Cadiente-Gushiken added seven and Ariel Lahip had one point, which was the game’s final free throw to create the two-point win.
The Warriors were led by Daniel Reis and his 15 points. Colby Baliaris and Kainoa Colipano scored 10 points apiece, followed by Adam Clark’s nine.
James Paik added three and Kawika Wellington and Makana Aki each netted two.
