WAIMEA — Kauai High School’s boys basketball team finished the season without a mark in the loss column. The Red Raiders (8-0 overall, 4-0 in second round) beat Waimea 62-42 in the final game of the regular season on Friday
WAIMEA — Kauai High School’s boys basketball team finished the season without a mark in the loss column.
The Red Raiders (8-0 overall, 4-0 in second round) beat Waimea 62-42 in the final game of the regular season on Friday night.
“This team worked really hard, they played hard and they focused,” said Kauai head coach Ipo Yoshioka. “They’re kids. They make mistakes … but the thing is they play hard and they played together.”
Red Raider junior center Melvin Tingzon said the team is now looking forward to playing at the state tournament.
“We’re focused on that. We got to take it one game at a time,” he said.
Tingzon finished the game with 15 points.
Waimea (1-7 overall, 0-4 in second round) threatened Kauai’s chances of an undefeated season after finishing the first half with a 27-24 lead.
Then Kauai scored 38 points to Waimea’s 15 in the second half to secure the win.
Menehune head coach Chris Acoba said his team gave its best effort to win but just “ran out of gas” in the second half.
“They pressured us again. Couldn’t take care of the ball and couldn’t hit our free throws,” he said. “It’s hard. It’s senior night and they didn’t want to go out with a loss.”
At the end of the night, Waimea said goodbye to its five seniors on the team.
Waimea senior forward CJ Kahepu’u said the team worked especially hard in practice to try to win the last game.
“We tried to bring our best this game, but just didn’t work out in the second half,” he said. “I’ll just remember working hard with my teammates in practice, busting our butts just to win.”
Acoba said his seniors worked hard in practice all season long and that’s what he will remember about them.
Kauai will play at the HHSAA Division II boys basketball state tournament later this month.
Yoshioka said this will be his fourth appearance at the state tournament.
“I’m excited for the future. It’s going to be a challenge,” Yoshioka said. “Every single team is going to be scrappy. They’re going to be hard. They’re going to come at you. We got to be ready for everything.”
Junior varsity:
Kauai’s junior varsity squad defeated Waimea 60-42.
Lanakila Wilson scored 12 points for Kauai and Waimea’s Irish Glenn Pascua scored 13 points.
