Kalani soars past Kaiser, 61-46

Isaiah Lee scores 10 of his team-high 12 points in the second half to help ignite the Falcons' 19-5 third quarter to beat the visiting Cougars. Greg Yamamoto | SL

The perfect storm hit Kalani High's gym Thursday night.

Isaiah Lee and Max Pepe combined for 20 second-half points and the Falcons soared past Kaiser, 61-46, in Oahu Interscholasrtic Association Eastern Division boys' basketball.

The Falcons (2-0) thrive on a fast starts, while the Cougars (0-2) labored out of the gate. Kaiser trailed 23-21 at the half, only to see Kalani open the second half with 3-pointers by Lee and Kapaa Nishimura to ignite a 19-5 third quarter that the Cougars could not overcome.

"We didn't start the third quarter strong," Kaiser coach Branden Kawazoe said. "That's been our problem all year, starting halves correctly and against a skilled and well-coached team like Kalani, they're going to make you pay. They came out with a couple 3s and put us in a big hole early."

The Falcons were ready to capitalize on the Cougars' woes.

"We always want to start off the half strong," said Lee, who had 10 of his team-high 12 points in the second half.

Pepe had all 10 of his points in the second half on the strength of 8-of-8 free-throw shooting.

Jaymin Khansmith led the Cougars with 12 points.

The Falcons took a 13-9 lead into the half, but the Cougars tied the game at 18 on a putback by Khansmith, who scored off of three rebounds. But Kalani's 6-foot-2 sophomore forward Brandon Chung scored fourth field goal of the first half to put the Falcons ahead for good. Nishimura solidfied the lead by making 3 of 4 free throws to increase the Falcons margin to 23-18. Kaiser closed the half with 3 of 4 free throws to make it 23-21.

The closest the Cougars to the Falcons was in the third period at 31-26. But Kalani closed the third period with an 11-0 run and opened the fourth with an 8-2 run.

Chung was a force for the Falcons in the first half, not just with his eight points. He also had five rebounds and a steal. Chung did not scored in the second half as his time was reduced.

"We wanted to go a little bit smaller," Kalani interim coach Everett Frye said. "(The Cougars) were going bigger so we kind of wanted to spread them out, so we went a little bit smaller so we pulled him out. He usually plays a lot of minutes for us, only being a sophomore. He really strong underneath."

Both teams resume OIA East play Saturday. Kaiser will visit Roosevelt and Kalani will travel to Kailua

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].