WAIMEA — Kapaa was held to three points in the first quarter before coming back to chip out a 34-31 win over Waimea Wednesday night in a physically defensive slugfest at Clem Gomes Gym in Waimea.
WAIMEA — Kapaa was held to three points in the first quarter before coming back to chip out a 34-31 win over Waimea Wednesday night in a physically defensive slugfest at Clem Gomes Gym in Waimea.
“Do you feel the adrenaline?” Kapaa coach Kamahalo Ka‘uhane said. “We focused on fundamental during the break — getting physical on the inside and limiting turnovers. Waimea is always very physical and tonight, the ball just rolled our way. I’m happy for the boys who got a step ahead tonight.”
Waimea took a 9-3 first quarter behind treys from Jason Newall and DJ Pabre while holding the Warriors to just one three-ball from Kurtis Fujito-Pascua.
Kapaa answered in the second frame, holding Waimea to just a basket from Pabre while piling up 11 marks fueled by Justin Faidly’s five points for the 14-11 break at the half.
“We worked on offense this week,” said Waimea coach Dino Pabre. “But we missed shots out there, and we got beat on rebounds. Kudos to Kapaa. They played a good, solid game tonight. We just got beat.”
DJ Pabre finished with game-high honors at 15 points while Rayson Yadao who finished with six points on a pair of treys dropping in the second half.
But the effort came up short as Kapaa pulled ahead on nine points from Michael Encinas and seven points from Faidly.
Earlier in the evening, Alakai Gonsalves scored 17 points to lead the Kapaa junior varsity to its 62-53 win over Waimea who got 23 points from Mayson Broyles, including five bombs from outside the three-point mark.
Kapaa closes the first round of Kauai Interscholastic Federation boys basketball, Saturday when it hosts Kauai High School at the Bernice Hundley Gym, the junior varsity match tipping off at 5:30 p.m. Waimea will host Island School in an exhibition JV match, also starting at 5:30 p.m.
Imua Warriors! Keep the momentum going…