LIHUE — Tiana Manera and Marissa Layosa each tucked away four points in the final quarter Wednesday night to help fuel the Kauai High School girls team to a 17-9 scoring run.
The eight-point surge was enough to power the Raiders to a 54-43 win before one of the biggest audiences in the Kauai Interscholastic Federation girls basketball season.
“This was a hard loss,” said Kapaa coach William Aki, whose Wahine Warriors had edged Kauai by one point in their previous meeting before dropping to Waimea in overtime last week. “We had our bright moments, but every time we caught up, they slowed us.”
The victorious 11-point scoring differential broke the tradition of the previous four KIF girls basketball games where both competing teams stayed within single-digit differences of each other. The margin also developed in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter, after Kapaa suffered the loss of one of its starting five to fouls.
Kauai, losing two starters to fouls against Waimea, Monday, was unscathed on this outing that resulted in a win following back-to-back losses.
With the win, Kauai improves to 2-2 on the KIF season, while Kapaa drops to 1-2. Waimea, following its win Monday night, sits at 2-1 while waiting to face Kapaa on Friday night.
“The girls kept their spacing out there,” said Kauai coach James Dingus. “They passed well in the second half, especially against the full court press. They were even able to get some layups against the pressure.”
Those factors may have fired up the confidence levels of the Lady Raiders, who had to catch up to knot the contest 13-13, after one quarter of play and held a 23-22 lead at the break.
Manera coughed up a plus-one play to open the second half when the Raiders maintained their composure and control of the matchup behind the scoring of Manera, also a strong rebounder, who finished with 16 points including a long ball from outside the three-point arc, and a perfect three-for-three showing at the charity stripe.
Amalya Sales, tending to an early-game injury, re-entered the fray to finish with 11 points, including a sorely-needed trey in the second period that kept Kauai ahead of Kapaa.
Rebecca Zenger, anchoring one of the low posts, finished with 10 points, eight coming in the second half, and Layosa ended the night with eight points, four coming in the final quarter. Bailey Perreira and Jessica Cezar each contributed four points to the win.
Jaliyah Casem and Mele Tafea topped the Kapaa scoring with 10 points apiece, followed by Hailey Overmyer adding nine points, a lot of quick, physical play, and a three-ball to the Kapaa effort. Lilya Cummings finished with five marks, and Hinali‘i Grance marked a second-quarter trey in her four points to round out the Warrior scoring leaders.
Earlier in the evening, Krystin Emeroso marked 11 points — nine coming in the second half, and Alena Bernardo finished with 10 points to lead the Kauai junior varsity to a 49-25 win over Kapaa who got 10 points — including two treys — from Jada Ines and eight points from Kaydence Kaui who also launched a pair of three-balls.
Kapaa next hosts Waimea, Friday night at the Bernice Hundley Gym with the junior varsity match tipping off at 5:30 p.m. followed by the varsity game starting approximately 20 minutes following the completion of the JV contest.
Kauai enjoys the weekend bye until Monday when it hosts Waimea at the Kauai High School gym.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
