Kapa‘a 60, No. 1 Kahuku 56 Jondi Das scored 17 points and Mai’lika Napoleon added 20 in Kapa‘a’s 60-56 upset over No. 1 Kahuku on Wednesday in the quarterfinal game of the Hawaiian Airlines/Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association’s Girls Division
Kapa‘a 60,
No. 1 Kahuku 56
Jondi Das scored 17 points and Mai’lika Napoleon added 20 in Kapa‘a’s 60-56 upset over No. 1 Kahuku on Wednesday in the quarterfinal game of the Hawaiian Airlines/Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association’s Girls Division II State Basketball Championships at Kalani High School. The Lady Warriors (11-0) have now made Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation history by going the farthest into the postseason tournament. No KIF team, boys or girls, have made it into the semifinals of the tournament.
Das also finished with 10 rebounds. Napoleon had eight and four of her total points came the 3-point range.
The Lady Warriors took the lead early in the first, but at the time, leading no more than three points. Kahuku was able to catch up and end the quarter ahead at 16-13.
“I kept telling the girls we just need to keep it close,” said Kapa‘a head coach Terri Maguire. “(Kahuku’s) press was a total hustle. Their coach was quoted as saying ‘we live and die by the 3s,’ and they just weren’t going in for them. Luckily, we were getting the rebounds.”
In the second quarter, the Lady Red Raiders (14-2) jumped up to an 11-point lead when they scored eight unanswered field goals to go up 24-13. A jumper from Leihua McCabe broke the Lady Warriors out of their scoring lag. Before the half, Kapa‘a had closed the gap to 26-21.
Coming out of the break, Kapa‘a made a run of its own, going toe-to-toe with Kahuku. Kapa‘a tied the game at 27-27 when Das came up with steal and assisted Napoleon for the layup. The Lady Warriors took the lead with a jumper from Mahea Hanie-Grace. From that, Kapa‘a held onto the lead and finished the quarter 45-36.
“Our press was good,” Maguire said. “We were so on tonight… I think they weren’t ready for us.”
Kahuku fought back, with less than a minute left of play, Kapa‘a was still up by nine points. A buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Kahuku’s Lama Tito was not enough to lift the Raiders over the Warriors.
They now move onto the semifinal game at 7 p.m. on Thursday night to play No. 4 Moloka‘i which, on Wednesday, defeated University High 35-30.
Napoleon went out of the game with two minutes left in the game with an injury and as of press time, her play status for the semifinal was unknown.
