KAPA‘A — The Kaua‘i High School Red Raiders traveled to Kapa‘a to take on the Kapa‘a High School Warriors in game two of the KIF girls basketball season Friday night. The Red Raiders were coming off of a solid dismantling
KAPA‘A — The Kaua‘i High School Red Raiders traveled to Kapa‘a to take on the Kapa‘a High School Warriors in game two of the KIF girls basketball season Friday night. The Red Raiders were coming off of a solid dismantling of the Waimea Menehune on Tuesday, and the Warriors were coming in untested in its opening game.
Both teams played careless, sloppy basketball committing multiple turnovers and each team struggled to get the ball in the basket for most of the night. In the end, the Red Raiders were able to come away with the 43-24 victory to move to 2-0 on the season, with the Warriors falling to a tie with Waimea at 0-1. Although Kaua‘i was able to come away with the win, neither team could feel great about the performance that was put together and should be attempting to make adjustments this week in practice.
Kaua‘i’s Kristle Henry, who put together a dominating performance in game one, backed up her performance with a gutsy one. She struggled from the floor offensively, but was able to get her team involved by finding open Red Raiders often. At times, Henry appeared too unselfish not shooting when she had an open look. Henry was anything but soft though, she often got spilled going up for layups on the fast break, which frequently ended in some vicious collisions between her and the hard wood floor. Henry finished with 11 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists on the way to the Red Raider win.
Kaua‘i got stand-out performances from other players offensively with Casey Anacleto leading all scorers with 15 points and had a good night shooting the ball. Kawehi Louis-Diamond also pitched in with 9 points and came away with her share of rebounds.
The Red Raiders did get a lot of help on the glass, with Rianna Ralston pulling in 15-plus rebounds on the night and also added 6 points to the total.
Once again it was the Kaua‘i up-tempo offense that was able to break the Kapa‘a full-court press, which made the difference in the second half.
Although Kapa‘a was able to play solid defense, the team suffered much like Waimea with getting the ball in the basket. The Warriors had a substantial amount of open looks but just wasn’t able to convert on a lot of them.
The Warriors were led by Maile Tuttle who was able to knock down some shots, along with Charlene Hanie.
The Warriors will travel to Waimea to take on the Menehune on Tuesday, with one team moving into the win column for the first time this year.
Kaua‘i will also prepare to travel to Waimea on Friday as they attempt to make it a 3-0 start on the season and take a commanding lead in the KIF.
The article was updated to include the game score.
