Farrington crushes Kapolei in OIA tourney opener, 52-22


Farrington's Shaniah Paleafei puts up a shot against Kapolei. Sylvia Lee | SL

KALIHI — No Moli, no problem.

Lokelani Pacheco and Naomi Peltier scored 10 points apiece as Farrington coasted to a 52-22 win over visiting Kapolei in a first-round game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I tournament at Richard Kitamura Gymnasium Friday night.

The Governors, who are the third seed from the Eastern Division, improved to 9-2 with their fifth consecutive win and are one victory away from security one of six league berths into next month's state tournament. They will travel to West second-seed Mililani for a quarterfinal-round game Saturday night.

"Our first goal was just to make it into the (OIA) playoffs, which we did. Now our second goal, of course, is to shoot for a championship but at the same time to try and get a spot in the state tournament," Farrington coach Caroline Tatupu said.

Seleni Bartley scored six points to lead the West sixth-seed Hurricanes, who saw their season come to an end at 5-6.

The Governors played most of the game without junior forward Moli Heimuli, who sustained a gash on the top of her head during a loose ball in the first quarter.

"She's all right," Tatupu said of Heimuli, who entered the game averaging 17.3 points per game and was coming off a 40-point game eight days prior. "She could have returned, but we decided to keep her out. She'll be good to go (Saturday)."

In Heimuli's absence, Pacheco, a senior forward, and Peltier, a junior center, both tied or set a season-high in points scored.

"I was pleased with that as well. Anytime we can rest our starters it's good for us to give some of the other girls some playing experience and playing time to pick up the game as well."

Pacheco started and scored eight of her team's 11 first-quarter points and Peltier, who came off the bench, did all of her scoring in the second and third periods.

An 3-pointer by Ashlyn Velasco got Kapolei within four points of the hosts at 15-11 with 5:08 left in the second quarter. However, Farrington answered by scoring the final 13 points of the half to take a 28-11 lead into the intermission.

"We got off to a little bit of a slow start in the first quarter, but the girls managed to pick it up in the second quarter, so I'm very pleased with the way they turned things around in the second quarter," Tatupu said.

Chantal Mailou and Pacheco got a pair of layups early in the third quarter to stretch it to a 17-0 run for the Governors, who led by as many as 34 points.

Kapolei, which had won its final two regular season games, matched their lowest scoring output of the season in the loss.

"I think that we were a little intimidated by the physical nature of the game and that's what kind of kept us on our heels," Hurricanes coach James Aronica said. "Early on though, we were able to move the ball and break their press, but we weren't able to be consistent and that was the big thing all year was consistency all year."



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].