Menehune get another shot at Kaua‘i

With junior guard Chad Barba out until the next grade check on February 4, the Menehune basketball squad will have their hands full against the Red Raiders, who are un-defeated at 5-0 going into tonight’s contest with Waimea at the Raiderdome.

“Well, we’re gonna probably do some praying…but on a serious note, we’ll have to play extremely well against them to come out with a win,” Waimea head coach Elton Montemayor said.

Without the services of Barba, the Menehune lose 13 points a game and a great defender for Red Raider point guard and former Menehune Jeremy Manuel.

Senior guard Aaron Hesapene and junior guard Bren-dan McDaniels will be forced to shoulder the load for Waimea, until Barba comes back.

Hesapene is the second leading scorer on the Menehune roster, averaging just a shade over eight points per game. McDaniels, the other guard in the Waimea three-guard lineup averages six points per game and is dangerous be-yond the arc.

Menehune senior forward Max Hadwin has a nice stroke to go with his bangability, which he learned from the gridiron as the Menehune signal caller.

“I told them in practice this week that they are going to have to almost play a perfect game to win and that’s re-ally tough to do, but we’ll try our best,” Montemayor said.

On the other side of the coin, junior guard Josh Brad-bury finally had his best shooting performance with three trifectas against Kapa‘a on Tuesday. If “JB” can find his mark, Kaua‘i is a tough team to beat.

Senior center Futi Tavana the KIF’s leading scorer, who is almost back to 100 0.000000rom a calf injury, will need to stay out of foul trouble and Manuel, Kaua‘i’s most consis-tent player this season and the KIF’s third leading scorer is the key to Kaua‘i’s success.

Catch tonight’s game (Waimea at Kaua‘i) at 5:30 p.m. (JV) at the Raiderdome. Varsity action commences 20 minutes following the JV game.