LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i High School Red Raiders rolled its way to a perfect 6-0 on the season heading in to Friday night’s game as the team hosted the Waimea High School Menehune. Sure, the Red Raiders had brief moments
LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i High School Red Raiders rolled its way to a perfect 6-0 on the season heading in to Friday night’s game as the team hosted the Waimea High School Menehune. Sure, the Red Raiders had brief moments of adversity, but for the most part, Kaua‘i has blazed a path through the KIF with ease.
Kaua‘i proved Friday that it can deal with adversity and compete in a tight game. The Red Raiders came from down 1 at the start of the fourth quarter to win decidedly 68-50 in a hard fought battle on both sides of the ball.
The Menehune, coming off of its first win on Tuesday over Kapa‘a, played probably its best game of the season and gave the Red Raiders all that they could handle. Anchored by a fantastic game from Paige Connelly, who finished with 10 points, and Caitlyn Owen, who led Waimea with 14 points.
The first quarter immediately began with a very good pace for both teams. The Menehune played with confidence and shot the ball well with Nicole Palacio hitting a three before the end of the quarter to tie the game at 14.
Waimea came out in the second quarter and put a solid full-court press on the Red Raiders and had success doing so. They were able to get Kaua‘i to turn the ball over and convert those mistakes into easy buckets offensively, Palacio had an excellent first half scoring 7 points for Waimea and got to the free throw line often. Kaua‘i was having a tough time defensively in its zone scheme as Waimea was getting open looks nearly every trip down the floor, which led to Waimea jumping out to a 32-30 lead before half time.
Opening the second half, both teams were going right at one another. Waimea’s Connelly was killing the Red Raiders on weak-side rebounding, which led to more Menehune possessions. Despite Waimea’s excellent play Kaua‘i found themselves up by 1 until Owen was able to get a layup right before the end of the quarter to help Waimea hold on to a 48-47 lead.
The fourth quarter was a tale of a different team as the Red Raiders came out looking very determined. Kaua‘i opened the quarter off of a Casey Anacleto three pointer and a Kawehi Louis-Diamond jumper, both of which came off a Kristle Henry assist to put the Red Raiders up 52-48 with 7:08 left.
Anacleto turned in a huge fourth quarter with 11 points, which gave her a game high 22 points on the night. Louis-Diamond finished with 14 and Henry closed out her night with 17.
The real turning point in the game happened when Mariyah Oliver was called for an illegal screen, which turned into a technical foul that enabled Kaua‘i to get two free throws and the ball. The Red Raiders took advantage and went up 56-48 with 5:55 left and never looked back.
From that point, Henry began to take over defensively coming away with easy steals and break away layups.
Kaua‘i impressively held the Menehune to just 2 points the entire fourth quarter, which led to most of its points late.
Shaylee Huni also played a huge role for the Red Raiders, who finished with 7 points and often got the ball on the block and was able to help keep Kaua‘i in the game early.
The win enabled the Red Raiders to remain a perfect 7-0 on the season and will travel to Kapa‘a Tuesday to try and cap off its perfect year.
The Menehune admirably fall to 1-6 and will host the Warriors on Friday in the season finale.
In junior varsity action Waimea came away with a close one and won 42-35 over the Red Raiders.
