LIHUE — After the Waimea High girls basketball team fell to Kauai High 58-46 last Friday in their gym, coach Natalie Mata used a different psychological tactic in Friday night’s regular-season Kauai Interscholastic Federation contest.
Throughout the season, the Menehune, the top-tier team in KIF until last week’s loss to the Red Raiders, was the catalyst for the psychological platform Mata used to build up the anticipation of the game — the role of the underdog.
The tactic worked, and the Menehune flipped the script, defeating Kauai High 65-37 at Kauai High to win Friday night’s highly-anticipated rematch and capture the KIF crown, qualifying them for the Snapple Girls Division II Basketball Championship Feb. 5 to 8.
“The first game in the second round we played, it was all about our energy. We just didn’t play Waimea ball, and that kind of thing is easy to fix, and it all comes from within,” Mata said. “All week our girls were treated like underdogs, and going into this type of environment we were treated like the underdog, and to come into an environment like this and get a win of this type tonight, that was special.”
Turning point
The Menehune were able to gain separation in the third quarter after taking a 21-14 lead into halftime, using a 28-point point third-quarter and a 44-point, second-half performance.
Waimea was catapulted by the scoring performance of Hazel Serapio, who finished with a 16 points. Kaye Serapio finished with 17.
The scoring tandem combined for a total of 33 of the 65 points in the victory.
Locking down Layosa
In the previous game, Red Raiders’ star guard Marissa Layosa scored 26 of the team’s 58 points, and during Kauai High’s senior night, the Menehune would not let her duplicate her success.
“Marissa beat us by ourselves, and we had to come up with a plan to contain her, and I think it worked pretty well tonight,” Mata said.
“From losing, there always are lessons, and those are the lessons you learn from,” Mata said. “Our team watches a video, and we saw it (and) what we had to sharpen up as far as Xs and Os, and Marissa beat us by in the previous game, and we had to come up with a plan contain her.”
To contain Layosa, the Menehune implemented a box-in-one zone defense, a tactic Red Raiders’ coach James Dingus said his team prepared for leading up to the game but hadn’t seen all season.
The Menehune defense held Layosa to eight points, putting pressure on the rest of the team to step up their offensive production.
“They made the adjustments, and when they did the box-in-one on defense, it worked, and they gave Marissa a hard time on defense and slowed her down,” Dingus said. “That forced her to share a lot of shots, and I gave them a lot of credit.”
Menehune Braelyn Cayaban played a crucial role in the containment of the Red Raiders’ star, Mata said.
“Our defense worked extra hard, and on defense, I played a big role, and I had to stay focused on her the whole game,” Cayaban said. “I had to be intact. Marissa is a great player, and I respect, and my goal was for her not to get the ball that much, and I did, and I am proud of myself and my team, and they backed me up.”
Intrinsic motivation
Cayaban and her team all week discussed what they needed to do to go into the Red Raiders’ home on senior night and win the game.
“Playing this game was a uneasy feeling, and all of those years they we were considered underdogs, and we wanted to change that tonight, and our team trusted each other,” Cayaban said.
“We referred to last week, our energy was low, and we talked about it and worked so hard in practice, and we built a different bond in this game and went all-out to our goal, and now we accomplished that.”
•••
Jason Blasco, sports reporter, can be reached at 245-0437 or jblasco@thegardenisland.com.
