WAIMEA — It took everything they had, but the Kapa‘a Warriors clinched the season’s second round with a 59-54 win over the Waimea Menehune, Tuesday night at the Clem Gomes Gym on the Westside. The victory moves Kapa‘a to 5-0
WAIMEA — It took everything they had, but the Kapa‘a Warriors clinched the season’s second round with a 59-54 win over the Waimea Menehune, Tuesday night at the Clem Gomes Gym on the Westside.
The victory moves Kapa‘a to 5-0 in the second round and also adds to its current win streak, which has reached nine games. As the second-round champion, Kapa‘a will take on the Kaua‘i Red Raiders in a one-game playoff for the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation championship next week.
The game was close throughout as each team showed improvement in their half-court offenses and traded buckets much of the game.
Tied at 44-44 in the fourth quarter, Kainoa Colipano pulled down an offensive rebound and put back the layup to give Kapa‘a the lead for good. The Warriors followed that up with a Spam Lindsey layup, which was assisted by Keane Agoot as he was falling to the ground beneath the basket, and an Adam Clark layup, again on an Agoot pass, for a 50-44 lead, leading to a Waimea timeout at the 4:35 mark.
The Menehune came right back and got layups from Travis Soares and Ariel Lahip to cut the margin to two, but Agoot snagged a steal and went in for a layup that gave Kapa‘a a 54-48 lead with just 1:25 to play. The Warriors held on from there for the five-point victory.
Point guard Willis Batol led Kapa‘a’s balanced attack with 13 points, while Agoot scored 12. Lindsey had 10 points, eight of them in the second half.
Colipano finished with eight points, all in the second half. Clark scored six, Jude Cruz had four and Bradley Coloma, Kevin Esteban and Keoni Kinzie each had two.
Vinda Carineo Jr. scored 19 to pace the Menehune, while Soares added 14. Lahip scored nine, including a pair of 3-pointers, Paul Oligo Jr. had eight points and Brandon Palacio and Jake Corona had two points apiece.
Kapa‘a started quickly, jumping ahead 15-7 on back-to-back buckets from Cruz, then 17-9 on an alley-oop from Cruz to Kinzie, which he finished with a soft layup.
But Waimea quickly answered got three consecutive 3-pointers — two from Lahip and one from Carineo just before the first-quarter buzzer — the third early in the second quarter for an 18-17 lead.
The teams went back and forth for the remainder of the half, ultimately heading to the locker room tied at 28-28 after a pair of layups from Clark and Lindsey erased a four-point Waimea lead.
It was more of the same in the third as Esteban, a JV call-up who saw big minutes in the second half, knocked down a jumper to give Kapa‘a a 40-39 lead after three quarters.
In the evening’s second varsity game, the Kaua‘i Red Raiders picked up a 50-43 win over the Island School Voyagers at Kaua‘i High School.
Kaua‘i athletic director Ross Shimabukuro said the game was a close one, as Island School held the lead on three separate occasions.
The win moves Kaua‘i to 3-2 in the second round and 8-3 on the year.
In the junior varsity game at Waimea, the Menehune JV suffered a 45-40 loss to the Warriors, who got 17 points from Lance Miyashiro — 10 coming in the fourth quarter.
Duke Yadao paced Waimea with 17 points, while Peterson Lahip scored nine.
The boys close out the regular season on Friday, as Kaua‘i hosts Waimea with JV tipping off at 5:30 p.m., followed by varsity.
Island School will take on Kapa‘a at the Island School Gym in a varsity-only matchup at 7 p.m.
