Dennis FujimotoTGI Staff Photographer KAPA’A—The lady Warriors of Kapa’a High School struck first and launched an aggressive, physical, mistake-evoking defense as they capitalized on the Waimea Menehunes, 62-46 at the Bernice Hundley Gym on Friday night. A sparse audience watched
Dennis FujimotoTGI Staff Photographer
KAPA’A—The lady Warriors of Kapa’a High School struck first and launched an
aggressive, physical, mistake-evoking defense as they capitalized on the Waimea
Menehunes, 62-46 at the Bernice Hundley Gym on Friday night.
A sparse
audience watched the ladies in green barrage the basket in the first half paced
by Jordyn Danner and Trichael Pangan. A more balanced second half had Kailana
Torio, Ashley Farias, and Kanoe Arinaga join the hoop-shooting of the Danner
and Pangan show.
Danner, who topped the game scoring with 18 points, led
the Kapa’a attack early as she picked up 14 of her points in the first half,
ten coming in the opening quarter.
Pangan took the offensive helm in the
second period to chalk up 11 of the total 19 Kapa’a points for the 34-23
lead.
Menehune guard Sherlyn Alcon ignited in the second period to pick up
7, including a trey, of her game-total 12 points after efforts at feeding Erica
Iwai yielded a field goal and a pair of free throws in the first
quarter.
Robyn Manuel added to the effort with a 4-point effort.
Kapa’a
opened the scorebooks early, and kept Waimea off balance for the first four
minutes of the game before Alcon scored at the 4:06 mark.
Enter Danner
who fired from the left, right, left, and up the middle as she paced an 9-4 run
to bring Kapa’a to a 15-6 showing with less than a minute left in the
period.
A 3-point play by Iwai pulled the Menehunes closer 15-9 at the
buzzer, and a quick opening basket by Robyn Manuel pulled Waimea even closer,
15-11 before Pangan entered the stage with an answering bucket, 17-11.
The
Kapa’a defense proved brutal against the Menehunes as Pangan increased the lead
by capitalizing on two midcourt turnovers to give the Warriors a 21-12 lead
with 5:51 left in the half.
Bucket trading between Jennifer Fukino and
Torio opened the third period before a defensive slugfest ensued holding both
teams to the lowest scoring of the game. A pair of Danner field goals broke
the defensive stalemate with three minutes left, 40-25.
Waimea’s Kailana
Soto promptly answered with a trey, 40-28, and point exchanges kept Kapa’a
ahead, 44-30 at the buzzer.
The final quarter was the closest the Menehunes
came to matching the Kapa’a firepower, 18-16, but missed free throws could have
painted a different picture as Waimea went cold on the line, 5-for-10 compared
with Kapa’a’s 4-for -7. A trey by Jodi Kimura had Waimea coming up with 11
field-goal points compared with the 12 from Kapa’a.
With four minutes left
in the game, the Menehunes went cold as they controlled the offensive ball but
could come up with only three free throw points on 8 attempts.
Kapa’a
closed the books, 62-46 with a Pangan field goal giving the Warriors the lead
in the KIF standings, 3-0.
Waimea (0-3) is still looking for that elusive
win as they host the Kaua’i High School Red Raiders (1-1) on Tuesday, April
4.
Tipoff for the JV game is 5:30 p.m. with the varsity game starting
twenty minutes following the completion of that game.
