Nanakuli's Precious Paulo-Meyers defends Kapolei's Dashia Carter. Sylvia Lee | SL

×

120413_sl-gbkb-5327.jpg - Sylvia Lee | SL

Purchase this image
4x5 5x7 8x10 image download

KAPOLEI — A sister act led the way for Nanakuli Wednesday night.

Precious Paulo-Meyers scored a game-high 14 points and Alexis Paulo-Meyers added 10 points as Nanakuli pummeled Kapolei, 60-37, in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Western Division opener for both teams.

A small crowd of about 100 fans at the Hurricanes' home gymnasium saw the Golden Hawks (1-0) control all facets of the game against the hosts (0-1). Nanakuli led wire-to-wire and benefitted from 36 Kapolei turnovers.

"That's what we expected," Golden Hawks' coach Randy Kauhane said of the result. "We wanted to come out and play our game, pressure them and that's what we did, but we still made plenty of mistakes and there's a lot we need to continue to work on."

Precious Paulo-Meyers scored nine of her points after halftime, made both of her team's 3-pointers and five assists, five steals and three rebounds for the game. Angelica Chun-Fook chipped in eight points with five assists and five steals and Keanani Chai added eight points with six rebounds, three steals and two assists. Nine players in all scored for Nanakuli.

Turnovers plagued the Hurricanes throughout the night. Their first three possessions of the game resulted in turnovers and they committed 13 in the first quarter alone. Nanakuli built an early 11-2 lead on Chun-Fook's coast-to-coast layup with 2:30 on the clock in the opening quarter. Kapolei closed it to 13-7 on Kela Whitehurst's putback at the end of the first quarter.

Kaitlyn Lanier's three-point play at the 4:52 mark in the second quarter cut the Golden Hawks' lead to 17-11, but Tianna Hanohano drove the left baseline and converted from beneath the basket to make it 19-11. Soon after, Hanohano appeared to injure her right knee when three players — including one of her teammates — colided when a Kapolei player drove the paint. Hanohano was helped off the court, but returned to the game in the third quarter and finished with four points, five steals, three rebounds and two assists.

"We don't depend on any individual," Kauhane said. "We're a team and I'd to think that we've got 10 Tianna's on our team, but it's good, of course, that she's healthy."

Nanakuli took a 25-17 lead into halftime.

The second half started the way the first did: with sloppy ball-handling from Kapolei. The Hurricanes turned it over on their first seven possessions of the third quarter until Whitehurst drained a 12-foot jumper to make the score 30-19. However, the Golden Hawks followed that up with a 12-0 run that was capped by Natalia Kaopua's putback that extended the lead to 42-19. Nanakuli led 45-26 after three quarters and stretched it to a 23-point edge in the fourth.

Kaopua scored all of her six points in the third quarter and recorded four blocks — two in each half — and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds with two steals. The Golden Hawks got 23 steals and 17 assists, but were just 4 of 13 on free throws.

Despite the lopsided score, Kauhane lamented over the numerous missed opportunities over the course of the game.

"We're not doing the basic stuff like blocking out," Kauhane said. "We're still not finishing like we should. We're missing plenty of layups."

Whitehurst scored 13 points with six rebounds and Raquel Lasconia added 10 points, three rebounds and three steals to lead Kapolei. Whitehurst was 7 of 10 from the free-throw line and Lasconia made a pair of second-half 3-pointers. The Hurricanes were 11 of 18 from the charity stripe. Lanier recorded a game-high 12 rebounds.

Nanakuli hosts Waianae Tuesday while Kapolei is off until Dec. 12, when it hosts Campbell.