Kapolei's Kaitlyn Lanier and Kela Whitehurst defend a shot attempt by Waianae's Dessirrei Sivia. Sylvia Lee | SL

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011314_SL-GBKB-KAP_WNAE-7100.jpg - Sylvia Lee | SL

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WAIANAE — Amayha Dycus made a living at the free-throw line Monday night. 

Dycus scored a team-high 16 points, including 14 of 22 free throws, to help Kapolei narrowly defeat Waianae, 50-49, in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Western Division regular-season finale for both teams.

The Hurricanes, who have won their last four games to improve to 7-3, led by as many as eight points in the third quarter, but had to hold off a furious Seariders' comeback attempt in the final eight minutes. Waianae fell to 5-5.

"We just had to gut it out," Kapolei coach James Aronica said. "We've got injuries, we've people suspended for fighting and all kinds of obstacles in the way. We've had three close games in a row — all single digits — and we've been able to come back and fight back and it just shows the heart of our team."

Dycus made just one field goal — which came in the first quarter — and scored eight points in each half. She made five straight free throws in the second quarter and seven of her final 10 for the game.

"We just practice free throws constantly and that's what it was," Dycus said. "Practice makes you do good in games."

After Dycus hit two of three from the charity stripe to give Kapolei a 38-30 lead with two minutes and 38 seconds left in the third quarter, Raywyne Atiga drained a 3-pointer on the other end to ignite an 11-0 Waianae run that helped it take a 41-38 lead with 5:38 to play.

Minutes later, Kapolei reclaimed the lead at 45-44 on a 10-foot jumper by Raquel Lasconia with 2:16 remaining, but Waianae's Berlin Johnson drew a foul on the ensuing possession and made the back end of a pair of free throws to knot it at 45 with 2:07 to play.

The Hurricanes answered by scoring the next five points to pull ahead 50-45 with just over half a minute left. The Seariders scored the final five points, including Lauren Tauanuu's putback with two seconds on the clock, but Kapolei ran out the clock to hang on.

"We couldn't make free throws, we were making too much turnovers, we just weren't executing, but it just took us having more heart and more hustle, getting those loose balls and we made enough plays at the end," Aronica said.

Waianae committed two critical turnovers in the final 90 seconds that led to a Kaitlyn Lanier basket and two Dycus free throws for Kapolei and made it a two-possession game.

"We had to play good defense and work as a team," Dycus said. "We slowed it down and went at our own pace and tried to work the ball."

The Seariders committed 32 fouls, including 20 in the first half, and had two players foul out. That led to 46 free-throw attempts by the Hurricanes, who made just 24 of them (52.2 percent).

"The fouls hurt us a lot," Waianae coach Cyrilla Manuel said. "To me, if we could have held off on the fouls, then maybe we could have done better scoring-wise. We gave them too many opportunities at the free-throw line. Our fouls were terrible — I think the worse of all our games."

Whitehurst finished with 10 points and Lasconia added nine for Kapolei, which will be the Red West's fourth seed in the upcoming OIA Tournament.

Atiga scored nine of her team-high 16 points in the fourth quarter and Chong added 10 points to lead Waianae, which will be the No. 6 seed out of the Red West in the 12-team tournament.