WAIMEA — The second quarter turned out to be the key period as the Kaua‘i Red Raiders picked up a 51-45 win over the Waimea Lady Menehune and moved to 3-0 in the season’s second round, Tuesday night at the
WAIMEA — The second quarter turned out to be the key period as the Kaua‘i Red Raiders picked up a 51-45 win over the Waimea Lady Menehune and moved to 3-0 in the season’s second round, Tuesday night at the Clem Gomes Gym in Waimea.
Leading 13-11 after the first quarter, Kaua‘i used a 13-2 run to jump out to a 26-13 lead, capped off by a Uila Ahosivi lay-up on a pretty fast-break feed from Kristle Henry. Henry went behind her back with the dribble, got to the baseline and tossed a quick pass to Ahosivi for the bucket on the left block.
Henry had a game-high 19 points on the night, including seven in that key second-quarter burst.
Casey Anacleto, Kawehi Louis-Diamond and Ahosivi all scored seven points apiece for Kaua‘i, while Jennifer Grady had six. Kristyn Lorita and Kelsey Cadiente each had two and Bristy-Ann Agu scored one.
Brandee Victorino topped the Waimea scoring attack with 14 points, 10 in the second half. Jayme Jacinto had 12 points including a pair of 3-pointers.
Cheyanne Duarte scored seven, Vakeesha Lagazo had four and Cassandra Owen and Paige Connelly had three points apiece. Robin Moura rounded out the book with two points.
Waimea now sits at 1-2 in the second round.
The Raiders scored the first six points of the night and never trailed in the ballgame, though it was close throughout the opening eight minutes as Lagazo scored on a driving lay-up to end the quarter with Waimea trailing 13-11.
But Cadiente found Henry cutting through the paint for a lay-up to open the second, followed by two more buckets for the guard and a 19-12 Kaua‘i lead. Grady and Ahosivi followed with shots from in close and the Ahosivi bucket off the Henry feed gave the Raiders the 13-point advantage, their biggest lead to that point.
Victorino knocked down a short jumper to bring the margin back down to 10 as Waimea trailed 28-18 at halftime.
Leading 33-24 in the third, Kaua‘i used a 7-0 run to open up its biggest lead of the game at 40-24.
Waimea didn’t quit and fought an 8- to 10-point margin for the rest of the game. Jacinto nailed a three to make it 50-43 and then barely missed her next one off a Kaua‘i turnover. The shot rimmed out and took most of the steam out of the comeback attempt.
In the junior varsity game, Waimea was a 41-31 winner over the Raider JV. The Menehune balanced attack was led by Jessica Soriano’s nine points. Nicole Palacio followed with eight and Kaelyn Aquino had five. Jenaiah Banasihan and Nicolei Banasihan each scored four, Jofferlyn Perpase scored three and Renee Yanagihara had two.
Uinise Paua led all scorers with 14 points for Kaua‘i. Alyssa “Malu” Vegas had five points, Shaylee Huni scored four, Daezsa Tomas and Pualani Dizol had three apiece and Sierra Chung rounded out the total with two.
Results from the Kapa‘a-Island School varsity contest were unavailable at press time.
The girls will be back on Friday night as Kapa‘a plays host to Kaua‘i at the Bernice Hundley Gym in Kapa‘a. JV will tip at 5:30 p.m., followed by varsity.
Waimea will head to Puhi to take on the Voyagers at the Island School gym in a varsity-only meeting at 7 p.m.
