LIHUE — Kauai High School’s Christian Manera scored 21 points to lead the Red Raiders to a 46-23 win over Kapaa High School Saturday night before an enthusiastic audience at the Kauai High School gym.
“Three quarters,” said Kapaa coach Kamahalo Kauhane. “We had them for one quarter. We need to work to put together four quarters.”
Fueled by 11 points from Manera, Kauai High School saw a 13-7 first quarter shrink as Kapaa came back with an 8-5 second frame, fueled by a Rafael Roslin three-ball and buckets from Kilakila Hepa and Moses Ho to deadlock the match, 15-15.
The Raiders’ production was limited to just a bucket from Vhincent Agreda until CJ Cromartie found the hoop from outside the three-point arc with 10 seconds left in the half. The trey saw Kauai take an 18-15 bulge at the break.
“The Warriors did a good job of sucking us into their game,” said Kauai coach Ipo Yoshioka. “We got caught up in their game. We needed to remind the boys to play our game.”
Kauai came back to outdistance Kapaa, 18-8 in the second half, including getting a pair of treys from Gunnar Burkman who finished with seven points — all in the second half — as repeated attempts in the first half came up empty.
Manera added a trey in the third quarter en route to his game-high total of 21 points, and Cromartie added seven points, including the tie-breaking trey in the second quarter. Leaping Kaimani Tecson finished with four points — all dropping in the third frame, and Hunter Yoshioka and Agreda each paired.
Ho topped Kapaa’s production at seven points, and Roslin finished with six points on a pair of treys. Kurtis Fujito-Pascua was held to a trey in the final quarter, and Michael Encinas ended with three points. Hepa and Hiro Raza each paired.
“We had some people out with colds,” Kauhane said. “But that’s just an excuse. We need to play together. We had a good quarter. We just need to get back to full strength and work harder.”
Earlier in the night, Aukai Gonsalves and Waika Rogers each netted six points to lead the Kapaa junior varsity to a 40-37 win over the Kauai JV.
Bryce Fernandez launched four treys for 12 points to lead the JV Raiders, with Pono Carvalho adding seven points in the effort.
Kauai next travels to the Clem Gomes Gym to face Waimea on Jan. 6 with the JV match starting at 5:30 p.m. The Kapaa JV will host Island School in an exhibition starting at 5:30 p.m. at the Bernice Hundley Gym.
