LIHUE — Kauai High School’s Marissa Layosa took control of the first quarter, Friday night to lead the wahine Red Raiders to a 63-49 win over the Lady Warriors during the Kauai Interscholastic Federation girls basketball games at the Kauai High School gym that was filled with enthusiastic fans from both benches.
“This sets up for a fun game coming up, next Friday,” said Kauai coach James Dingus. “I’m so proud of how Marissa performed out there, tonight. We’ve seen her leadership qualities grow from the preseason games.”
Layosa controlled the floor, netting 14 of her game total 17 points in the opening stanza, including launching one from outside the three-point mark, leading the Lady Red Raiders to an impressive 28-8 bulge at the end of the opening stanza.
Kapaa answered with the long ball, Hailey Overmyer getting the honor of opening the scorebooks with her launch from the leftside, and Kayla Tangalin finding the hoop from the opposite side to rouse the Raiders into action.
The Kauai fire power did not let up for the remaining three periods, gliding to a quiet fourth period when Kapaa outgunned the Raiders, 10-3 behind six points from Lilya Cummings who finished the night with 14 points for the Lady Warriors.
Low post Alexie Ann Yam added 13 points to the Lady Warriors’ scoring, and Overmyer ended the night on 10 points, nine resulting from bombs launched from the outside.
“We need to work on our ball handing,” said Kapaa coach William Aki, who dropped a 77-53 match to Waimea, Wednesday night at the Bernice Hundley Gym. “That’s our Achilles Heel. We are one player short, and someone needs to step up.”
Layosa took high-game honors on her 17 points followed by Amalya Sales with 13 points, including one second-quarter three-ball, and Angeline Nizo adding 12 points, nine dropping in the third quarter.
Earlier in the evening, Kapaa Junior Varsity’s Kiani Salvador pulled the JV Lady Warriors into the winner’s column on a three-ball with 32 seconds showing in overtime as the Kapaa JV broke the string of victories, 39-37 before the audience that was stirred into action for the varsity matchup.
Kauai’s Kadee Parubrub answered with the opener of a charity pair with 27 seconds showing, only to have Kapaa’s Jada Nakamura preserve the Lady Warrior lead at 11 seconds with a bucket.
Parubrub answered at the four-second mark, but the effort came up short as Kapaa put away the game with 3.8 seconds showing when Shayna Kamoku dropped the opener of a charity pair for the 39-37 final.
Jada Ines topped the Kapaa JV scoring on 17 points, including five bombs from the outside. Salvador added nine points, including five in the overtime period, and Nakamura finished with six points, four coming in the fourth period and a pair in overtime.
Jazmine Constantino led the JV Red Raiders on 16 points, including a pair of treys, and Parubrub finished with eight points, six coming in overtime.
Missed opportunities broke the undefeated string of Kauai Red Raider junior varsity victories when the Lady Raiders were at the line for six times in the final 28 seconds of regulation, but being able to capitalize on just one to force overtime at 31-31 when the final buzzer sounded. Overall, Kauai JV finished with a seven-for-24 showing at the charity stripe.
Kauai next travels to the Clem Gomes Gym next Friday for the final game of the KIF First Round in girls basketball.
Both teams are strapped with a loss apiece, resulting in a tie for the First Round title. A win, next Friday, will give the First Round title to the game winner.
“Does anyone have an answer?” Dingus said of the two shooting Menehune guards — Kaye Serapio and Kierstin Gummerus — who finished with 25 and 29 points, respectively in the 77-53 win over Kapaa, Wednesday in Wednesday night’s basketball contest. “I’m open to ideas. High school basketball is at its finest, coming to the final game to settle. We’ve got the girls off on Christmas Eve and Christmas so they can spend time with their families. This is important — families first.”
