Kaiser races past Pearl City to reach OIA Division I quarters

Kaiser's Mario Drummer scored a game-high 21 points to lead the way for the Cougars in a win over the Chargers in the opening round of the OIA Division I playoffs. Greg Yamamoto | SL

Kaiser raced out to a 19-10 first quarter lead and never looked back in a 59-38 win over Pearl City in the opening round of the OIA Division I boys basketball playoffs at Kaiser High School Gymnasium.

Mario Drummer and Kenji Toyama led the charge with 22 of the Cougars' 33 first half points. Toyama's two three pointers near the midway point of the first quarter seemed to open the flood gates for the home squad, or at the very least, forced the Chargers' defense to adjust to the outside threat.

When they did, Drummer and post Cyrus Singelman had their way on the inside, accounting for all 14 points scored in the second.

Holding a 33-22 edge heading into the second half, Kaiser opted to keep Singelman, seated on the far end of the bleachers with an ice pack around his knee, out for the rest of the game.

His absence certainly was felt, but Kaiser's bench responded, chipping in 13 of the team's 26 second half output led by Dylan Hickcox, who finished the game with 9 points, all in the second half.

Pearl City hit two early threes to open the third, but was never quite able to string together enough offense to make a run.

Much of that was due to the ball pressure applied by Kaiser's front court defenders, forcing bad passes and helping to hold leading scorer Malosi Viena to just nine points, his lowest output since a seven point outing on Jan. 9 against Mililani.

Viena went down briefly late in the third with an apparent ankle injury, but returned in the fourth.

Kaiser's Nalu Kanaluu, a post player averaging 7.2 points per game in the regular season, was on the bench for the game but not in uniform.

Next up for the Cougars is a road tilt at West top seed Leilehua, with tip off set for 6:00 p.m.