Tahnee Foki checked out after Friday injury by Lanaly Cabalo and Dennis Fujimoto – The Garden Island The Menehune beat the Hurricanes 32-24 in the first of three preseason games for Kapolei. But the Hurricane men came back for a
Tahnee Foki checked out after Friday injury
by Lanaly Cabalo and Dennis Fujimoto – The Garden Island
The Menehune beat the Hurricanes 32-24 in the first of three preseason games for Kapolei.
But the Hurricane men came back for a 59-39 blow against the Menehune men Thursday. They continued by staving off a strong Red Raider showing in the final quarter to take a 48-45 win into the locker rooms last night.
Tonight, the Hurricane men go up against the Kapa‘a Warriors to wrap up their series on Kaua‘i.
On the ladies’ side, the Kaua‘i Red Raiders handed the Hurricanes a costly loss yesterday.
Not only did the Hurricanes drop to Kaua‘i, 34-30, their key scoring player, Tahnee Foki, was taken away for observation after dropping late in the contest. Foki led the Hurricane effort with a game-high 16 points.
Charlei Jackson and Rhilee Soriano followed with 5 points each in the loss.
With 54 seconds showing on the clock, Kapolei was chasing a point, 30-31, when Foki was injured.
Krystal Ijima banked a shot for the 33-30 bulge with just 24 ticks remaining, and closed the scorebooks with 12 seconds on the clock by nailing the tail end of a charity pair for the 34-30 Kaua‘i win.
Janessa Grady, Lauren James and Kelsey Cadiente paced the Kaua‘i victory with 6 points apiece, followed by Kathleen Cadiente sinking 5 points in the balanced scoring attack.
Kira Taylan, Tristen Rosare and Ijima finished with three points followed by a pair from Jennifer Albuja and a digit from Jaimee Mariano.
Aiko Grande hit a pair of 3-pointers with two minutes in the first half Thursday and Jayme Jacinto hit a trey of her own to put the Waimea High School’s girls varsity basketball team up 12 points over the visiting Kapolei High School team.
That would be their biggest lead of the night as Kapolei picked up the pace in the final minutes.
Kapolei shrunk the lead to come within 6 points with 1:30 left to play.
Jacinto sank her final two free throws to give the edge back to Waimea.
Similarly, the Hurricane ladies exerted pressure in the second half Friday night, coming back from a 23-11 halftime deficit to outgun Kaua‘i, 10-6 and 9-5 in the final two periods.
The Menehune men were only down by 4 points following the first quarter Thursday, but the Hurricane’s lead grew to 12 by the half, paced by its quick guard Nate Dixon.
Lawrence Olive picked up 8 of his game-high 13 points in the second half to lead the Hurricanes.
Kaimana Girod and Clareson Torres paced the Menehune attack with 7 points each.
D’Shaun Dubois, who netted 8 points against Waimea, took the forefront yesterday against Kaua‘i as the Hurricanes surged ahead from their 22-18 halftime lead.
The Hurricanes netted 10 unanswered points, capitalizing on its defense to force Kaua‘i turnovers. With 1:36 showing in the third period, Tim Brown picked a Raider ball and a pass to Dubois saw Kapolei post a 16-point lead, its biggest of the night.
But with 1:20 showing on the board, Basil Walton answered with back-to-back buckets for the 36-24 reading.
A Dubois bucket was answered as Silas Tacsiat dropped his pair with just .2 second showing for the 38-27 reading at the buzzer.
Coming back from the 7-point deficit, Tyrus Ceria-Lux ignited the crowd with his second dunk of the night early in the fourth quarter to fuel the Kaua‘i comeback.
But that effort fell short as Dubois nailed the final score from the charity stripe after being fouled by Walton, his fifth, with 1.6 seconds showing.
The front end of the charity pair by Dubois finalized the score at 48-45 as the long pass downcourt from Kaua‘i’s Jeremy Robinson came up empty with just .4 second left in the game.
Dubois finished with a game-high 18 points to lead Kapolei followed by Olive and Dixon each netting a dozen points each. Jordan Ferreira’s 6 points rounded out the Friday night scoring.
Walton finished with 17 points to lead the Kaua‘i effort followed by Robinson adding 10 points.
Travis Stine contributed 8 points and several key boards on both ends of the court.
Ceria-Lux finished with 5 points, four coming from his two net antics, and Teila Huni netted 4 points. Pairs from Tacsiat and Scott Taylor rounded out the effort.
The Hurricane ladies open the doors to the Bernice Hundley in Kapa‘a starting at 5:30 p.m. followed by the Hurricane men taking the court following that game.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com.
