Waiakea races past Roosevelt, 73-50

Waiakea sophomore guard Kelsie Imai gets around a Roosevelt defender. Greg Yamamoto | SL

A big, 32-point second quarter sparked Waiakea past Roosevelt, 73-50 to cap the second day of the Orthopedic Associates Sacred Hearts Invitational at the Lancers' gymnasium on Thursday.

"For us we want to get experience. Any chance we can get to play Oahu teams, we jump on it. We had three Oahu teams come for our preseason tournament. Coming out here, we want to see where we stand and compete day in and day out," said Waiakea coach Brandon Kauhi.

The Warriors advance to the tournament's semifinals to play Kamehameha-Kapalama at about 8 p.m.

The Rough Riders drop to the consolation bracket to face Kamehameha-Maui at 3:30 p.m.

"We were trying to incorporate the younger girls with our older girls. The first half was tough, some calls didn't go our way. They were a tough team and that's the kind of competition we need to get ready for the OIA," said Roosevelt coach Chad Kaihe.

Kelsie Imai led all scorers with 19 points, six steals and two blocks. Claire Kaneshiro chipped in 10 points including two 3's and Zaelynn Lui-Cabinatan and Jazelle Dorser added nine and eight points respectively.

Both teams struggled to find their shot in the opening quarter. Taylor Tateyama got the Rough Riders on board at the 5:15 mark and Keighsha Walker drained a 3-pointer for the Warriors' first field goal at around 4:13. The shots began to fall as Waiakea took a 11-7 lead.

The Warriors turned up the pressure to speed up the game and it resulted in Roosevelt turnovers. The defense sparked their offense and it was something Waiakea needed to get going.

"That's what we wanted to do. We want our defense to create our offense. We got deflections and steals and leading to transition. That second quarter was a better quarter for us," Kauhi said.

"I think our thing is we aren't confident in our shot. So if we're not confident we're off. We had to focus on getting help-side and back-side. Everyone did well," said Imai.

Waiakea pulled away after Imai's layup, 22-12 and the Rough Riders couldn't recover as the Warriors went up by more than 20 in a blink of an eye and scored 32 points in the quarter to take a 43-20 lead at halftime.

"Most important thing is in the second half we battled. First half, we were trying to battle but we didn't understand the intensity they were playing at," said Kaihe.

Waiakea forced 32 total turnovers and got 22 steals that led to 22 points off of the turnovers. Everyone on the Warriors' 12-player roster got playing time.

The Rough Riders settled down in the second half and managed to match the Warriors point for point. Haven Gabriel scored a team-high 13 points and grabbed five rebounds before fouling out while Sunshine Vicente (nine points, five boards) and Mari Foster (eight points, six boards) rounded out the scoring.

"After halftime, we had a talk and said you have to match the intensity. Despite the score, skill, plays, what we learned in the second half is how to battle and meet people's intensity," said Kaihe.

The teams combined for 52 fouls. Roosevelt shot 20 of 40 (50 percent) from the free throw line while Waiakea shot 15 of 34 (44.1 percent).

"We want to improve our defense. We had 18 I believe team fouls in the second half. We have to play disciplined defense and be able adjust to the referees. Roosevelt did a good job getting to the basket and getting fouls and making them. Free throws is another key for us to be successful too," said Kauhi, on improving over the next two days.

Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].