LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i Red Raiders outscored the Waimea Menehune 13-2 in the second quarter on their way to a 58-44 win, Wednesday night at the Kaua‘i High School Gym. Kaua‘i was led by Davone Florence’s 18 points, with Bryan
LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i Red Raiders outscored the Waimea Menehune 13-2 in the second quarter on their way to a 58-44 win, Wednesday night at the Kaua‘i High School Gym.
Kaua‘i was led by Davone Florence’s 18 points, with Bryan Andres following with 10.
Forward Joe Duronslet scored eight, Cody Iwasaki had seven and Austin Simao followed with five.
Cameron Largusa and Cody Mordan scored four apiece, while Pono Cummings rounded out the Raider total with two.
Waimea’s VJ Carineo scored a game-high 19 points, 14 coming in the second half as he tried to pull his team back into the ballgame.
Malcolm Carter scored seven, followed by Micah Rita and Bransen Agu with five and four points, respectively.
Kaulana Waalani-Arroyo, who signed a National Letter of Intent to play football at the New Mexico Military Institute earlier in the day, hit a 3-pointer for his only points in the game.
Paul Oligo, Xavier Guirao and Kody Saio each had two points.
Kaua‘i was able to get its offense going early and spread the ball around to different scorers, jumping out to a 21-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Duronslet had back-to-back scores late in the second, first on a fast-break layup and then getting a steal and layup to give Kaua‘i a 31-15 lead.
Leading by 19 at halftime, the Raiders had successfully taken advantage of numerous Menehune turnovers. Waimea was not getting many good scoring opportunities and had limited looks at the basket.
The game looked to begin to turn early in the third quarter. Carineo found Rita for a deuce to open the half and followed that with a banked 3-pointer, cutting the deficit to 14 points.
An Agu layup cut it down to 11 at 40-29, but that was as close as Waimea could get for the rest of the night, with Kaua‘i continuing to look for fast-break opportunities and not just sit on the lead.
Carineo continued to hustle and hit the backboards, but Waimea just couldn’t contain Kaua‘i’s up-tempo style.
Largusa, who seems to be smiling throughout the entire game, had the final Raiders bucket off a long outlet pass from Florence to make the score 58-42.
He thought he had another opportunity moments later, but had his shot blocked by Carter, though he continued to smile even after the rejection.
In the other varsity game Wednesday, the Kapa‘a Warriors improved to 6-2 on the season (including one forfeit) and 2-0 in the second round with a 63-45 win over the Island School Voyagers at Island School.
Big man Duke Pauli put up 19 points, getting his team going with 14 in the first half. Spam Lindsey followed with 11 and Kekoa Colipano scored 10.
Jundell Sagugio put up five points, followed by Stephen Greenleaf, Jefferson Harper and Arnel Tangonan with four points apiece.
Jason Iloreta, Bradley Coloma and Daniel Avea each had two points.
Kyle Lee led the way for Island, scoring 14. Brennan Wortman had 11, while Canaan Higa scored 10.
Jeremy Flagg followed with five, Makana Ledesma had three and Jedadiah Blake scored two.
The Warriors raced to a 20-11 lead at the end of one, with Pauli and Colipano scoring a combined 14 in the first frame.
They extended to a 39-25 halftime edge, but the Voyagers played pretty evenly with the Warriors in the second half.
In the night’s only JV action, the Menehune were led by Kaili Lagundino’s 22 points on the way to a 54-33 win over the Raiders.
Brandon Palacio scored 13, followed by seven from Garret Gushiken and five from Travis Soares.
Shosho Ogawa knocked down a three for his only points, while Duece Bolleser and Niko Delos Reyes each scored two.
Mikal Moranz led the Raiders with 10 points, followed by Kerwin Morano’s nine and Donovan Harrison with eight.
Keanu Yamaoka scored four and Joseph Machado added two.
Waimea led by nine after three quarters, but outscored Kaua‘i 18-6 in the fourth quarter to leave little doubt about the outcome.
The boys are back on the floor Saturday, with Waimea hosting Kapa‘a. The JV game will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by varsity at the Waimea High School Gym.
Island will be at home once again when Kaua‘i varsity heads to the Island School Gym to play at 5:30 p.m.
