KAPAA — Kapaa High School’s varsity girls basketball team defeated Kauai High, 45-22, at home Friday evening. With the win, Kapaa (7-0 KIF, 3-0 2nd round) won the season’s second round and its third consecutive Kauai Interscholastic Federation championship. “It
KAPAA — Kapaa High School’s varsity girls basketball team defeated Kauai High, 45-22, at home Friday evening.
With the win, Kapaa (7-0 KIF, 3-0 2nd round) won the season’s second round and its third consecutive Kauai Interscholastic Federation championship.
“It feels really good,” said Warriors senior center Siokapesi Paua. “I just feel so happy to win KIF with my sisters and coaches. Even though I was gone for three weeks, they pushed me to play hard.”
“I feel like this is the best year,” she added. “I just hope the little ones (the underclassmen) can continue on.”
The Warriors outscored the Red Raiders on average by about six points per quarter.
“It’s nice. This year was a difficult year to stay where we’ve been. To have no blemishes, it’s not easy,” said Kapaa head coach William Aki. “Especially from a coach’s view, it’s hard to keep the girls focused. Playing against two tough teams every single year, it makes it difficult every game.”
“It’s more so for the girls — for the seniors that have been here for the first one to now,” he said about the consecutive championships. “It makes me, as the coach, proud that they accomplished a big feat in the three years that they’ve been at this varsity level.”
Friday’s game was technically a home game for Kauai High, and also its senior night. The game couldn’t be played at Kauai High because a backboard was broken in the school’s gym.
“It was kind of a ‘Twilight Zone’ feeling all week — with the facility issues that we had and not being able to have senior night in our own gym. We tried to make the best of it,” said Kauai head coach James Dingus. “It was just a weird feeling, and the game didn’t go our way at all either.”
Four Red Raiders seniors were recognized before tipoff: guards Malyssa Manera and Marissa Martinez, and forwards Marilyn Clement and Kaelee Esposo.
“I’m going to miss playing basketball. I’m going to miss my family — my teammates, my sisters,” Manera said, who is in her third year playing varsity. “We played hard. We always stuck together.”
“They’re really good young women,” Dingus said about his seniors. “They’re good citizens. They make good choices. They try their best, and you can’t really ask for a whole lot more than that.”
Paua had nine points, seven rebounds and two blocks for Kapaa. Freshman guard Jaliyah Casem had 10 points, five assists and two steals. Junior guard Paea Tafea had eight points, 14 rebounds, three blocks and three steals.
Sophomore center Taegan Keep had 11 points and eight rebounds for Kauai High. Junior guard Sheryl Ann Tomas had five points, three rebounds and a steal.
Kapaa also won the junior varsity game, 50-31. Sophomore forward Keani Tolenoa had 16 points for the JV Warriors.
Sophomore forward Kaylee Braun had 11 points for Kauai.
Kauai (3-4 KIF, 1-2 2nd round) will play at Waimea (0-6 KIF, 0-2 2nd round) on Tuesday. The JV game will begin at 5:30 p.m. and the varsity will follow.
Kapaa will host Waimea on Friday for the season finale.
“For me, we need to finish up the season strong regardless,” Aki said. “Looking forward to (states), we got to make sure stay healthy and don’t get anybody hurt.”
