LIHU‘E — It may not have been a drastic as the Kapa‘a girls’ comeback win Friday night, but the Warrior boys followed suit with a 62-53 win over the Kaua‘i Red Raiders, Saturday night at the Raider Dome. Kapa‘a (2-2)
LIHU‘E — It may not have been a drastic as the Kapa‘a girls’ comeback win Friday night, but the Warrior boys followed suit with a 62-53 win over the Kaua‘i Red Raiders, Saturday night at the Raider Dome.
Kapa‘a (2-2) handed Kaua‘i (3-1) its first loss of the season and put itself back in the mix for a first-round championship, but needed to overcome an early deficit to do it.
The Warriors played their bench for the entire opening quarter, with the reserves responding early. The Raiders then made a run in the middle portion of the period with Cerwinh Moreno fast-break lay-up giving Kaua‘i a 14-4 lead.
Once the starters made their way back into the game to start the second quarter, they got back within one point when Willis Batol knocked down a three to make it a 15-14 Raider lead.
Trailing 23-20 towards the end of the half, Bradley Coloma provided a big-time spark, scoring seven straight points before intermission. He knocked down a three, then got a steal for a lay-up, finally nailing a pair of free throws for a 27-23 lead at the break.
Kainoa Colipano put in a lay-up off a Batol feed for a 38-28 Kapa‘a lead midway through the third, but Kaua‘i got a three from Moreno and a jumper from Joe Duronslet to cut the deficit back to five.
The Warriors started the final quarter with a 45-37 advantage and built it up to a 12-point edge when Daniel Reis hit Batol for a lay-up on the break, 53-41.
Kaua‘i kept within shouting distance and had some life in the final minute when Moreno hit his second 3-pointer from the corner off a steal to trim the margin to 59-53.
But Kapa‘a resisted and remained strong in the nine-point victory.
Coloma was the game’s high scorer with 16 points, while Batol scored 13 on the night. Colipano had eight points and Keane Agoot had seven. Reis had six points, Spam Lindsey and Adam Clark scored four apiece and Jude Cruz and Jundell Sagucio each scored two to complete the math.
Brian Andres and Joe Duronslet had 13 points apiece to lead Kaua‘i, which also got 10 from Moreno. Dane Bautista had six points, Donavan Harrison scored five and Nathan Wong had four. Alden Ho rounded out the scoring with two.
In the junior varsity game, Kapa‘a came away with the 54-49 victory behind double-figure scoring outputs from Makana Aki, James Stevens and Lance Miyashiro.
Mikal Moranz scored 17 to lead Kaua‘i.
The boys will be back on the floor on Wednesday, when the Warriors will host the Waimea Menehune at the Bernice Hundley Gym. JV will tip at 5:30 p.m., followed by varsity.
The Raiders will head to Island School to take on the Voyagers in a varsity-only matchup at 7 p.m.
