Big third quarter helps Moanalua knock off McKinley, 58-45

Moanalua's Eliet Donley takes the ball to the rim over a McKinley defender. Peter Caldwell | SL

In an OIA Red contest at McKinley, Moanalua pulled away in the second half to ring up a 58-45 win to improve to 3-1 on the season.

Running up a quick 8-0 lead, Na Menehune found themselves down 15-13 after one quarter as the Tigers began finding the range from beyond the arc.

McKinley went up 18-13 early in the second period but by the break, Moanalua had regained a slim lead 25-23.

With McKinley misfiring from long range and taking advantage of turnovers, Na Menehune outscored the Tigers 16-7 in the third quarter and maintained a comfortable margin the rest of the way.

For Moanalua, Ola Brown, Kahanu Puʻulei-Auld, and Justin Hudcovic all had ten while Dan Villejo and Kui Williams led the Tigers with 9 and 8 points respectively.

Looking down the road toward the playoffs, Moanaluaʻs Coach Greg Tacon had some concerns.

"Thatʻs what happens when you play a team that likes to shoot threes." said Tacon. "No matter how well you think youʻre playing, youʻre only a couple of possessions from being down and thatʻs what happened early... Our point guard needs to learn that we need direction from him, and if we donʻt get it, when we get into a playoff situation, we wonʻt win games. But I give them a lot of credit because theyʻre a three-point shooting team, and if they knock them down, theyʻre going to be in games."