KALAHEO — Gee’s Angels and Kaulupono Girls retained their leading positions with victories Monday night at the county’s 14 and Under girls basketball league. Mahea Hanie-Grace paced the Angels’ 44-10 win with 9 points in a balanced scoring attack that
KALAHEO — Gee’s Angels and Kaulupono Girls retained their leading positions with victories Monday night at the county’s 14 and Under girls basketball league.
Mahea Hanie-Grace paced the Angels’ 44-10 win with 9 points in a balanced scoring attack that kept the Lihu‘e Kamakazes in single-digit reading until the final minutes when they broke 10 points on a Lauren Fernandez bucket.
Kaulupono Girls worked close against the Kalalea pressure before pulling out a 37-29 win late in the fifth period when Erin Connelly went to work in the paint to break a 24-24 stalemate.
From there, Kaulupono launched a 9-3 run capped by a
layup from guard Vakeesha Lagazo.
Kalalea was not done, though, as the Anahola girls in green netted a trey from guard Kira Nakamura.
But Connelly responded with a variety of buckets from the low post, and despite a final effort when Tori Tuttle blocked a Connelly shot with two ticks on the clock, Kaulupono wrapped up the contest 37-29.
Following Hanie-Grace, Lauren Claypoole added 8 points, Raquelle Matayoshi chipped in 6 on three buckets, Reggie McCabe finished with 6, going 2-for-2 at the charity stripe to round out the Angel leaders.
Fernandez and Makana Fujimoto paced the Lihu‘e Kamakazes’ offense with 4 points apiece, Fujimoto’s two buckets coming in the sixth period. Kawehi Louis-Diamond finished with a pair in the effort.
Connelly topped the Kaulupono victory with 10 points followed by guard Jayme Jacinto adding 9 points as well as controlling the ball movement on the court.
BreeAnn Cox-Abuan got a lot of playing time to finish with 7 points, sharing court duties with Lagazo who ended with 4 points. Paige Connelly also netted 4 points in the second period to ignite the Kaulupono fans.
Kalalea’s go-to person, Kaira Kupihea finished with 9 points to lead the Anahola effort with Tuttle netting all of her game-total 8 points in the first half, the low post making a significant difference in Kalalea’s control of the court in the first half which ended 17-19 in favor of Kalalea.
Kaylee Belmonte and Melina Obar each netted a pair in the effort.
Following Monday night’s contest, the Angels have a slight edge over Kaulupono with one loss that came at the hands of Kaulupono two weeks ago. Kaulupono has two losses in its standings.
Earlier, Gee’s Angels racked up wins over Kalalea, 31-12 on Dec. 13 and 50-2 over the Uptown Jammers on Dec. 16.
Hanie-Grace continued to set the pace for the Angels with 9 points scored against Kalalea and 13 points against the Jammers.
Kalalea got 7 points from Tuttle in the Dec. 13 contest while Mariano netted the sole score for the Jammers on Dec. 16.
Mariano got help from Dana Agustin in their effort against the Lihu‘e Heat, Dec. 13 as both girls racked up 6 points.
But the effort fell short as the Lihu‘e Heat downed the Jammers 46-16 behind Kelsey Cadiente and Janessa Grady who each tucked in 8 points.
Jazzlyn Bradbury paced the Waimea Minihunes with a dozen points in their 28-7 win over the Lihu‘e Kamakazes, Dec. 16. Kylie Barba and Louis-Diamond led the Kamakazes with a pair each.
Erin Connelly took the lead in Kaulupono’s 38-24 edge over the Lihu‘e Heat. The Kaulupono low post secured 11 points followed by Jayme Jacinto netting 8 points.
Cadiente set the pace for the Heat with 9 points followed by Kayla Perez contributing 5 points.
