No. 6 Kalaheo rolls by No. 8 Kailua to remain unbeaten

Andrew Jones (34), who had a game-high 18 points, contests Isaac Auld's shot attempt. Brandon Ching | SL

KAILUA—No. 6 Kalaheo turned back their Windward side rival and No. 8 Kailua, 60-47 in an Oahu Interscholastic Association East Division contest at the Surfriders' gymnasium Saturday.

Andrew Jones led the Mustangs with 18 points, Bobby Thompson and Kanoa Smith each added 12 to help Kalaheo to improve to 3-0 and stay atop the division standings.

"He is very, very good inside. He's a big guy that goes back to the old school style who likes to play with his back to the basket. We're happy he's doing what we want him to do which is get us some points inside and play some D," Kalaheo coach Rob Pardini said of Jones.

Nainoa Peters led Kailua with 16 and Lydell Romero had 12 as Kailua (2-1) suffered their first league loss.

Kalaheo hit seven 3-pointers for the game and got back-to-back threes from Thompson and Pono Browne to go ahead, 17-13 after the first quarter.

"Lately we haven't been shooting a lot of threes for us, we're a good perimeter shooting team and for Andrew doing what he was doing inside opened things up for us," coach Pardini said.

Jones established himself in the paint and used his 6-foot-6 frame to get four points off putbacks and scored 10 points in the first half. Perimeter shots continued to fall as Smith was fouled by Peters as he hit the 3-point attempt from the left wing and Browne hit his second triple for a 30-23 lead.

"We ran a little press and got back up and don't block out on the bottom of the bucket. We have to work on the little things to beat Kalaheo and we didn't work on little things tonight. Andrew Jones had an outstanding game. For us playing off of Kahuku playing their big guy (Oscar Cheng) and not to do a good job with Andrew Jones was disappointing our team knows that," Kailua coach Wally Marciel said.

With 4.5 seconds remaining coach Pardini was assessed a technical foul, Peters split the technical foul shots and Michael Kim who was fouled on the play before drained both free throws as the Surfriders closed the gap, 30-26 at the half.

Jones continued to convert baskets from the blocks to open the second half and later Ryan Owens threw a cross court pass to Thompson in the right corner for his second three of the game to put the Mustangs up eight.

Koalii Kohatsu had a 3-point play opportunity and Peters threw down a dunk in transition to get the Surfriders within four, but Jones was there to tip in Owens' miss before the buzzer sounded.

"I'm proud of the boys, the second half they grinded it out. We had a four point lead at halftime and anything can happen. Our boys stepped up defensively I thought and it's a good win for us," coach Pardini.

"We're down six with the momentum swinging and we don't block out and Andrew gets a nice bucket in there and we're chasing again. We didn't do our job in the paint and it showed tonight," Marciel said.

Luke Pardini opened the fourth hitting the team's seventh 3-pointer of the game and Owens hit a baseline jumper for a 48-37 lead to force Kailua to call a full timeout.

"We didn't really hit outside shots in the second half. We had them in the one-and-one and we should've attacked the bucket better. You have to hit free throws too. You can't just go to the bucket and hit one, you have to hit two," Marciel said as his team shot 16 for 21 from the foul line.

The Surfriders got within five, 48-43 after consecutive layups from Ryan Graham and Kim that were set up by steals however, the Mustangs were able to pull away for good from the free throw line.

Kalaheo visits Farrington on Thursday, Jan. 9 while Kailua has a drive to Kaneohe to take on Castle on the same night.

Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].