Denhym Brooke puts up a reverse against host team Kailua Saturday night, in our game of the week. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Kahuku's Samuta Avea slams down two of his team-high 13 points in a win over Kailua. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Sat, Jan 24, 2015 @ Kailua

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Kahuku

60

Kailua

48

Final	1	2	3	4
Kahuku (18-6, 18-6)	11	11	19	19	60
Kailua (14-12, 14-12)	10	10	13	15	48

SEASON LEADERS

Christian Mejia 10.1 ppg  62.8 FT%

Denhym Brooke 13.7 ppg  5 3pm  74.2 FT%

KAILUA – Kahuku's muscle was too much for Kailua to handle as the Red Raiders pulled away in the second half to win, 60-48.

The Red Raiders saw five players score in double figures in their Oahu Interscholastic Association Eastern Division win over host Kailua Saturday night. Kahuku improved to 6-1 in the league standings while the Surfriders (4-3) saw their four-game winning streak come to an end.

Kahuku's Samuta Avea led the way with a game-high 13 points on 4-for-4 shooting. Shooting guard Keanu Akina added 11 points and bigs Denhym Brooke and Hyrum Harris each scored 10 points. Kesi Ah Hoy also played well, adding 12 points off the bench. 

Kailua's defensive game plan was evident from the beginning: no easy baskets. The Surfriders were whistled for the first seven fouls of the game and tried their best to deny Brooke and Harris shot attempts from inside. This stymied the Red Raiders in the first half as they only led by two at halftime.

But instead of shying away from the contact, Kahuku embraced it to outscore Kailua 38-28 in the second half. The Red Raiders converted on 19 of their 23 shot attempts from 2-point range and attempted 25 total free throw attempts after only getting to the line seven times in the first half.

"In the second half I think we adjusted to the crowd and the (physicality)," said Harris who also added six rebounds and three blocks.

"Coach said, ‘look in the second half we need to look inside and feed our bigs, and our bigs need to do work.'" 

Kahuku got things going in the second half with Brooke's off-the-glass shot from the low block. After Kailua's Christian Mejia scored on the other end, the Red Raiders went on a quick 6-0 run that was capped by Tamamoko Green's alley-oop pass to Avea for a two-handed slam. This drew a lot of cheers from the Kahuku fans in the crowd, prompting Kailua to call timeout with 5:04 left in the third quarter.

"I thought we came out a little slow, (Kailua) slowed the game down. Then we started to warm up in the second half, get a little more aggressive. Then we started to get into our flow," explained first-year Kahuku coach Alan Akina.

Kailua would get some points on the board to stop the bleeding, but Kahuku would slowly pull away. The Red Raiders pushed the lead to nine on Harris' three-point play and would extend it to 11 on reserve Bradlee Anae's basket off a goaltending call. 

The Surfriders' Nainoa Mercado nailed a triple from the right wing to make the score 41-33 heading into the fourth.

Kailua tried its best to catch up in the fourth quarter, getting the lead down to as low as six, but could not generate enough offense late in the game to overcome the third quarter deficit. 

Mercado led the Surfriders in the loss with 11 points while Mejia added 10 more.

Kahuku will host McKinley next while Kailua will try to avoid dropping its second straight against top-ranked Kalaheo. Both games are slated for next Tuesday.