Kalaheo's Kekai Smith puts up a jump shot in traffic against Kailua. Smith scored a game-high 22 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter, in a win over the Surfriders. Brien Ing | SL

Purchase image 1 of 1

Fri, Feb 5, 2016 @ Kalaheo

---

Kailua

57

Kalaheo

66

Final	1	2	3	4
Kailua (8-7, 18-14)	14	11	14	18	57
Kalaheo (12-2, 25-7)	22	14	4	26	66

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

K. Smith 22 pts  1 3pm  9/10 FTs

Z. Marrotte 16 pts  3 3pm  5/8 FTs

A. Layi 6 tot  4 off  2 def

C. Mejia 10 tot  8 off  2 def

K. Smith 3 ast

N. Auld 3 ast

KAILUA — Kekai Smith took matters into his own hands Friday night.

The senior guard scored 11 of his game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter to help sixth-ranked Kalaheo to a 66-57 win over visiting Kailua in a quarterfinal game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I Tournament at Pete Smith Court.

The East second-seeded Mustangs rallied from an early deficit and shot 84.2 percent (32 of 38) from the free-throw line to improve to 10-2 and advance to Tuesday's semifinal round, where they will play West top seed Leilehua at 7 p.m. at Radford's Jim Alegre Gymnasium.

Smith made 5 of his 10 shots from the field and was 9 of 10 on free throws. He had 10 points in the first quarter alone.

The victory was Kalaheo's third straight and seventh in its last eight games. It secured one of the OIA's six spots in this month's state tournament in the process.

"It definitely feels good that we can compete in states this year, especially my senior year," said Smith, who shouldered much of the load offensively for the Mustangs after junior guard Captain Whitlock was ejected at the 2:47 mark of the third quarter.

Whitlock, who was averaging a team-best 18.2 points per game entering the contest, drew a technical foul after he expressed his displeasure with a call on the defensive end of the floor. Seconds later, after a verbal exchange with an official, Whitlock was assessed another technical foul, which led to his immediate ejection.

"I guess the ref gave him a warning early in the game to just stop talking to the opposing team and to the refs," Kalaheo coach Rob Pardini said. "He questioned that call and the ref just didn't like it. It was bad timing and tempers were flaring anyway, so he double T'd him and tossed him, which for me was really difficult to not totally go crazy."

The Mustangs seven-point lead was cut to four after Everett Torres-Kahapea made all four free throws that resulted from the two technical fouls.

Kailua outscored Kalaheo 14-4 in the third quarter and pulled within 40-39 to start the fourth.

"Coach said, ‘next one step up,' so that was all of us," Smith said. "We all had to step up, take leadership and just get the job done."

Kalaheo opened the fourth quarter with a 12-2 run that was capped by four straight points by Ryan Pardini.

The Surfriders eventually got within a possession at 60-57 following three Torres-Kahapea free throws, but the Mustangs scored the final six points of the game to pull away.

"We starting shooting 3's when we should have pounded the ball in, but credit Kalaheo," Kailua coach Wally Marciel said. "They tightened up their zone and our big guys just couldn't get the ball and Kekai Smith took over the game after that. He was penetrating, he was the guy with the ball and he's the leader of their team and he took over when Whitlock was taken out of the game."

The Mustangs made 18 of 21 free throws in the final quarter.

"That's big and everybody stepped up, Kekai especially with hitting some big free throws," Pardini said.

Alex Layi and Harry Wallace combined to make all 14 of their free throws. Layi finished with 14 points and a team-high six rebounds and Whitlock chipped in 10 points.

Kalaheo shot 41 percent (14 of 27) from the field. It limited Kailua to 6-of-24 shooting from the field in the second half, largely due to its 2-3 zone.

"We knew two things: we knew we had to defend the post well tonight and then in the third and fourth quarter we knew that when we had a lead we could not let them get going from the perimeter," Pardini said."With our 2-3 at times we're not great on the perimeter, but tonight we defended from the inside-out on the bigs and we closed out well on the perimeter."

Smith said defense was a point of emphasis in practices after Kailua upset Kalaheo, 54-52, when the teams met in the regular season just 16 days earlier.

"During practice we put in seven guys on offense, so we were practicing getting out there faster, getting back to the bigs and fronting them more, so I guess that helped," Smith said.

Zach Marrotte, a Kalaheo transfer, led Kailua with 16 points. Chrisitian Mejia, who had 23 points and 10 rebounds in the first meeting, had 13 points with 10 boards and Kawehe Kohatsu added 13 points and six rebounds.

"They packed it in and they did a good job, kept our guys off the boards and limited us to maybe one, two shots," Marciel said of the Mustangs. "They played a heck of a game."

Smith said he and his teammates were eager to avenge the regular-season loss.

"Everybody was talking about it the whole week," Smith said. "Even in school, our mentality was like, ‘we've got to win, we've got to win. Revenge, revenge, revenge.' "

Kalaheo held a 36-25 lead at halftime. It was asssessed a technical foul before the game began for failing to turn in its lineup 10 minutes prior to tip off. Torres-Kahapea made both free throws for Kailua, which opened the game on a 10-3 run.

Kailua was playing its second game in as many days after edging Kapolei, 46-44, in Thursday's opening round.

Kalaheo had a bye Thursday.

The East sixth-seeded Surfriders fell to 7-6. They can clinch a state-tournament berth with a win at Moanalua Tuesday in a 6 p.m. fifth-place semifinal.

Under OIA bylaws Whitlock is also ineligible for Tuesday's game. Pardini said he plans to appeal the suspension.