KAPA‘A — Raquelle Matayoshi and Reggie McCabe both finished with 16 points, but the effort came up short for the Kapa‘a High School varsity girls basketball team, Thursday night at the Bernice Hundly Gym. Matayoshi netted eight points in Kapa‘a’s
KAPA‘A — Raquelle Matayoshi and Reggie McCabe both finished with 16 points, but the effort came up short for the Kapa‘a High School varsity girls basketball team, Thursday night at the Bernice Hundly Gym.
Matayoshi netted eight points in Kapa‘a’s 42-31 loss at the hands of the Kapolei Hurricanes and pocketed another eight points in Kapa‘a’s 49-30 loss to the Maui Sabers.
McCabe finished with seven points against Kapolei, six coming in the second half, and a team-high nine points against Maui.
Both girls are veterans for the Warrior wahine coached by Willy Aki and got some help from Krystal Christian who finished with three points against Kapolei, improving to six points against Maui.
In both games, the Warriors played catch-up ball, leading with the ball handling of McCabe and the inside game of Matayoshi and Christian.
The opposition proved too much as Kapolei built up a 24-10 halftime lead behind Paige Kaea who netted all of her game-total in the first half. Toe Motu finished with her game-total five points coming in the first half and Bernice Ching netted four of her game-total five points in the first half.
Kaitlynn Lanier came onto the arena in the second half, finished with a team-high eight points, all netting in the second half. Carly Gaea finished with seven points, five dropping in the first half.
Following the lead of Matayoshi and McCabe and in the sorely absent Kekai Gonsalves and Mahea Hanie-Grace, Ethalyn Calvin added five points against Kapolei.
With a 30-minute break between games, the Warriors faced the Sabers, finishing the first quarter chasing just a bucket, 6-4.
But the Sabers came alive in the second quarter, Jo’voni Shimabukuro leading the charge with five points as the half sounded on a 16-9 Saber lead.
Shimabukuro topped the Maui scoring with nine points followed by Jordyn Vega adding eight second-half points and Ahlaynee Milliet balancing her eight points between the first and second half. Christina Lotulelei finished with seven points, all coming in the second half, and Patricia Batoon ended with five points to round out the leaders.
Kapolei and Maui face off against each other for a single game Friday night and Kapa‘a will open against Maui before taking on Kapolei for a second time, Saturday to round out the pre-season series.
The Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation opens the girls basketball season on Dec. 13 when Kaua‘i travels to Waimea and Kapa‘a visits the Island School facility.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.
