WAIMEA — Kauai High girls basketball player Marissa Layosa knew her team needed to topple top-ranked Waimea High Saturday night in Waimea to continue their quest for the Kauai Interscholastic Federation varsity title.
Layosa and her team faced the scenario that if they lost, the Menehune would need to defeat winless Kapaa Monday night to capture the KIF crown and advance to the Hawaii High School Association Snapple Girls Division II Basketball Championships Feb. 5 to 8 at the Hilo Civic Center.
Before playing the Menehune, the Raiders talked about playing their brand of basketball after defeating Kapaa High 47-33 Wednesday night at Kauai High to the up the Westside showdown.
The team responded with their backs against the wall and defeated Waimea High 58-46 in a must-win game.
If the Menehune defeat Kauai on Friday, and winless Kapaa Monday, they will be headed to the state tournament.
If the Red Raiders were to win the final two games they would force a playoff, and both teams would face each other to qualify for state.
The two teams play each other again Jan. 24 in the season-finale at Kauai High. If the Red Raiders (7-3 in the KIF) win, they could potentially force a playoff game with Menehune (8-1) for the right to go to the state tourney.
Layosa was a significant contributor to the Red Raiders’ victory, dropping 23 points in the first half, with a game-high 27 points on the night.
“We knew it was an important game and taught ourselves just to have fun,” Layosa said. “We just went out and played to have fun, and in previous games, we were up and down and just took ourselves too seriously, and when we realized this, we just played together.”
According to Layosa, it all boiled down to execution. By halftime, the Red Raiders had a 36-20 lead over the favorite Menehune.
The Menehune came back in the game, scoring 27 second-half points, but it wasn’t enough.
“Waimea is a good team, and played with a lot of heart, and they were playing for a KIF championship,” Red Raiders’ coach James Dingus said.
“They showed a lot of heart and came back and scored a lot of buckets in transition to close the gap. Luckily, we generated enough offense to be able to come away with the win, and watch some tape, and try to get a little smarter, and we will continue to watch the tape to get better.”
Dingus attributes his team’s success to paying attention to their assignments.
“We’ve been everywhere on our team, and our team has played different roles, and they all did different jobs,” Dingus said. “When we built a cushion, we had a couple of shooters, and our defenders did their thing, and Marissa had a really, really good first three quarters.”
Menehune girls’ basketball coach Natalie Mata credited Kauai High’s game plan.
“Kauai came out and played a perfect game and gave it their all, and on the other end, they took it for granted, and their defense deserved to win this game,” Mata said. “Hopefully, we will learn from this, and our girls will play to their full potential. It’s a lesson learned.”
Kaya Serapio led the Menehune with 16 points.
“Honestly, I feel it wasn’t the Xs, and Os, and we didn’t have the fire, and it caught up with us into that game,” Mata said. “We didn’t play our style, and we had to make too many adjustments. Hopefully, the next time we come and play our brand of basketball.”
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Jason Blasco, sports reporter, can be reached at 245-0437 or jblasco@thegardenisland.com.
