Kalaheo's Dario Delcastillo puts up a jumper against Moanalua. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Moanalua's Antoine Hines puts up a shot over two Kalaheo defenders. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Moanalua's Aaron Stuart dribbles down court against Kalaheo. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Kalaheo's Kupa'a Harrison battles Moanalua's Aaron Stuart for the basketball. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Thu, Jan 2, 2014 @ Moanalua

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Kalaheo

52

Moanalua

48

Final	1	2	3	4
Kalaheo (11-3, 26-10)	13	11	17	11	52
Moanalua (10-5, 17-12)	17	17	4	10	48

J. Willis 17 pts  2/3 FTs

K. Harrison 24 pts  1 3pm  11/13 FTs

Kalaheo rallied in the second half to defeat Moanalua, 52-48 in the O'ahu Interscholastic Asscociation Red East opener at Moanalua's gymnasium on Thursday night. Moanalua falls to 6-6 overall, 0-1 in the OIA Red East while Kalaheo improves to 15-5 overall, 1-0 in the Red East.

"It's good for us because we're such a young team. This is our first real, down-to-the-wire game that we won and improved on because we had close games, but haven't been able to close it out, so it's a good experience for us as a team," said Kupa'a Harrison.

The Mustangs trailed 34-24 at halftime, but they outscored the Na Menehune 28-14 in the second half and 17-4 in the third quarter to take the lead. Kupa'a Harrison led the way with 24 points and two blocks and scored 11 of his 24 points in the third quarter.  

"We made it loud and clear in there and we wanted everything to go in front of the rim. If we had an opportunity to isolate him (Kupa'a) on a smaller guy or a bigger guy and we wanted to do that and he came through for us," said Kalaheo coach Alika Smith, on Harrison.

Harrison got to the free throw line thirteen times and made 11-of-13 attempts and the team went 17-of-26 from the line for the game.

After giving up 34 first half points to the Na Menehune, the Mustangs refocused on defense and held them to four points in the third quarter.

"Defense is our staple and coach preaches to us every game and that's how we got to win. He said that 34 points is in the first half is way too many points. He gave us a good talk and we came out fired up and took pride in our defense," said Harrison, on their third quarter comeback.

Kalaheo got off to a 6-2 run to start the third quarter after L.J. Barnes made a 3-point play after he scored off a rebound and put back to make it 36-32 and Moanalua called timeout. Harrison hit a 3-pointer from the right wing to tie the game up at 38 and made 2-of-2 free throws to give the Mustangs their first lead of the game.   

In the fourth quarter, Moanalua reclaimed the lead after Jamaal Willis made two free throws to make it 48-47. However, Kekai Smith found a wide open Zach Marrotte under the basket in transition to put the Mustangs back up, 49-48. Moanalua called timeout with 1:02 remaining in the quarter. After several missed Moanalua baskets, Harrison eventually got the ball and was fouled. Harrison went 5-of-6 from the free throw line in the quarter and he made 1-of-2 free throws to preserve the victory for the Mustangs.  

"We were down one and needed to get go man and they were going to hold the ball. We pressured them a bit and we got a turnover and we converted on this side, that was big for us. Our zone somewhat kept us in the game, 14 points in the whole second half, I think it dumbfounded them to an extent and helped us get back into the game," said Smith.

"It's like any other game, you have to make plays down in the end and we had some opportunities and we didn't make them and that's how it goes," said Moanalua coach Byron Mello.

The Mustangs had to dig themselves out of an early deficit and Kalaheo coach Alika Smith called a timeout 24 seconds into the game, upset with his team's start.

"Everything we wanted to do, we set it up perfectly and I wanted to send a message that this is not going to be easy and we need every single point that we can get and we missed a great opportunity in that first cut," said Smith.

It was back and forth as both teams traded baskets. The Na Menehune were aggressive and got to the charity stripe and made 5-of-8 free throws and took a 17-13 lead.

In the second quarter, Jamaal Willis led the charge as Moanalua took advantage of their athleticism and got out in transition. Kalaheo called a timeout 1 minute 20 seconds into the quarter after the Na Menehune went on a 4-0 run and Jamaal Willis found Aaron Stuart in transition for a fast break layup.

"In the first half, we weren't playing our game and we weren't running back, we were giving them a lot of easy buckets in transition. Coach told us we have to stop them from getting all the way down the court and giving them easy buckets they didn't have to work for and just make them work for it," said Harrison.

"We talked the key for us was to control the tempo, we did a great job doing that in the first half. We lost our momentum in the third quarter, Kalaheo got the tempo back and obviously they got back into the game. When we get out and run, we can do really, really good things, I was hoping we could do more in the second half, but it didn't turn out that way," said Mello.

Willis hit a 3-pointer in the right corner to give the Na Menehune a 32-19 lead, the largest lead of the game. However, Kekai Smith answered with a 3-pointer of his own from the left corner and the Mustangs trailed by 10 heading into halftime.

Jamaal Willis led Moanalua with 17 points, three assists and three blocks, Aljohn Bumanglag added 9 points and Karson Cruz had seven rebounds before fouling out.

Kalaheo hosts Roosevelt on Saturday, Jan. 4 at 7 pm while Moanalua travels to Anuenue on Saturday at 7:30 pm.

"It's going to be a tough, even league. It's going to be a battle each and every night," said Smith.

"I told my kids to keep it in perspective and it's one game and get ready on Saturday," said coach Mello.