Chanelle Molina came up big, leading her team with two 20-point performances thus far in the 2014 Iolani Classic. Tyler Kanoa | SL

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Fri, Dec 12, 2014 @ Iolani

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Konawaena

49

Riverdale

41

Final	1	2	3	4
Konawaena (12-0, 28-1)	11	11	13	14	49
Riverdale	15	10	13	3	41

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

L. Niang 16 pts  2/3 FTs

C. Molina 20 pts  1 3pm  5/6 FTs

Z. Campbell 8 tot  5 off  3 def

C. Molina 16 tot  5 off  11 def

A. Willey 2 ast

C. Molina 2 ast

Call them the giant killers.

For the second consecutive night, the Konawaena Wildcats took down a mainland powerhouse behind another stellar performance from junior guard Chanelle Molina. Friday night, the victim was Riverdale Baptist (Upper Marlboro, MD) in the semifinal round of the Iolani Classic girls basketball tournament.

Molina, the reigning All-Hawaii Division I Player of the Year, scored 20 points and grabbed 16 rebounds — both game-high marks — to lead Konawaena to a 49-41 win over Riverdale Baptist before a crowd of about 300 at Iolani's lower gym.

The Wildcats, who improved to 12-0 with the win, were vastly outsized by the much taller Crusaders, who have four players listed at 6-1 or taller and are ranked 17th nationally by MaxPreps.

"We knew they were bigger than us right from the start," said Molina, who also had five assists. "We looked over (during warm-ups) and we saw that they're a lot taller than us, so we knew that we had to box out. Every possession the key was to box out, because without that box out, we could convert to transitioning and getting easy layups."

Konawaena utilized a 2-3 zone for most of the night and crashed hard on Riverdale Baptist senior forward Lena Niang, who is committed to play at North Carlina State next year.

"Riverdale is a very, very big team and we knew that coming in, but we also knew that if we spread the court it would give us opportunities to drive to the basket and find the backdoor and I thought we did a great job doing that," Wildcats' coach Bobbie Awa said.

Niang finished with a game-high 16 points for the Crusaders.

Riverdale Baptist held a 15-11 lead after the first quarter and a 25-22 edge at halftime. It took a 38-33 advantage on a Niang layup, but Konawaena pulled to within a point following consecutive baskets by Molina, and took the lead for good on a 3-pointer by Mikayla Tablit from the deep left corner.

The Wildcats spread the floor down the stretch and burned at least two minutes off the clock. They outscored the Crusaders in the final quarter, 14-3.

"We just wanted to spread the court and open up the middle for us and I think we did a good job at that," Awa said. "We knocked down some shots when we needed to, so that was real good. The girls are playing with a lot of confidence right now."

Molina spent most of her time on offense near the high post and found several teammates on backdoor cuts to the basket.

"We just played smarter," Molina said. "If we were up we had to set-up our plays and play smarter, work the transition a lot and get open and look for easy lanes. If they would come up on us, we would kick it out to the shooter. It's just those little plays that really count. It wasn't about outworking them, but outsmarting them."

Konawaena survived a 63-62 win over Miramonte (Orinda, Calif.) in Thursday's quarterfinal round and will now play Saint Mary's (Stockton, Calif.), which beat Iolani 82-44 in the late semifinal Friday, in Saturday's 8 p.m. tournament final.

The Wildcats last appearance in the championship game in 2011, when it beat Brea Olinda (Calif.) by a score of 50-40 behind 24 points by current-Washington State star guard Lia Galdeira.