Warriors edge Raiders on road

LIHU‘E — In their biggest game to date, the Kapa‘a Warriors have all but assured a playoff will occur to determine the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation boys basketball championship after knocking off the Kaua‘i Red Raiders 53-46, Wednesday night at the Kaua‘i High School Gym.

The win now puts Kapa‘a at 4-0 in Round Two of the season, as Kaua‘i falls to 2-2. Each team has two more games left in the regular season.

Kaua‘i’s 5-1 record in Round One was good enough to win the season’s first half, but it needs to win out and have Kapa‘a lose both its games to Waimea and Island School to force a Round Two playoff — an unlikely scenario given that Kapa‘a has not been beaten by either squad yet this season.

Wednesday’s game was tight throughout, as Kapa‘a took a second-quarter lead and never relinquished it, though Kaua‘i never trailed by more than eight all night.

Spam Lindsey led the Warriors with a game-high 14 points, followed by Kekoa Colipano’s 13.

Duke Pauli was held somewhat in check with nine points as his teammates picked up the scoring slack. Stephen Greenleaf added eight points, six coming in the fourth quarter.

Sean Shigematsu had six and Bradley Coloma knocked down a big fourth-quarter 3-pointer for his only bucket of the night.

Davone Florence was the top scorer for the Raiders, finishing with 12 points. Cameron Largusa followed him with nine points.

Bryan Andres and Austin Simao each scored eight, while Niko Chow — back in the rotation after returning from injury — had five points.

Cody Mordan and Joe Duronslet each scored two.

With under two minutes to play, Florence nailed a pair from the free-throw line to make it a 47-43 ballgame, but Kaua‘i had a defensive lapse that may have been the back-breaker.

Inbounding under the Kaua‘i basket, Kapa‘a took advantage of a mix-up that left Lindsey all by himself under the rim for an easy deuce.

Colipano got a layup with 46 seconds to play that again made it a six-point game, then hit Greenleaf with a layup to put the game away at 53-45.

The Raiders started the night strong and took a 15-9 lead at the end of the first after back-to-back 3-pointers from Andres and Largusa, the latter of which appeared to be an unintended bank shot, but still lifted the Raiders to a six-point lead after one.

Kapa‘a came back with its strongest quarter, outgunning Kaua‘i 16-6 in the second frame. Lindsey got the run started with a three off an inbound pass and then flashed three fingers to his teammates on the bench.

Tied at 21-21, Shigematsu grabbed an offensive rebound and put back a layup to give Kapa‘a a lead they’d never lose for the rest of the night.

After trailing by seven, Largusa nabbed two straight steals and finished each sequence with a bucket to make it a two-point contest at 35-33, but Kapa‘a used an 8-2 run to regain some separation, capped by an Andres 3-pointer off an inbounds pass.

In the other varsity contest Wednesday night, the Waimea Menehune knocked off the Island School Voyagers by a 52-41 count.

Malcolm Carter scored a game-high 17 points for the Menehune, while Xavier Guirao added 11.

Brennan Wortman led the Voyagers with 12 points on the night.

The win moves Waimea to 2-2 in Round Two, while Island falls to 0-4.

In the JV game that preceded varsity action in Lihu‘e, Kapa‘a was a 55-49 winner over Kaua‘i, led by 13 points from Kainoa Colipano and 11 from James Paik.

Daniel Reis added nine for Kapa‘a.

The Raiders were led by Donovan Harrison’s 19 points. Mikal Moranz and Benzon Dante added 11 and seven points, respectively.

The boys are back on the court Saturday, when the Waimea Menehune will host the Kaua‘i Red Raiders at the Waimea High School Gym. JV action will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by varsity play.

The Kapa‘a Warriors will be hosting the Island School Voyagers at the Kapa‘a High School Gym, with varsity tipping off at 5:30 p.m.