McKinley's Joramae Otarra (14) blocks a shot attempt by Kalani's Cory Mitchell (11). Sean Nakamura | SL

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Brandon Roberts, right, makes a shot attempt over McKinley's Nelson Pita. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Dayton Lee makes a shot attempt over Kalani's Blaise Manabe. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Sat, Jan 4, 2014 @ Kalani

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McKinley

75

Kalani

65

Final	1	2	3	4
McKinley (6-5, 14-7)	17	21	12	25	75
Kalani (5-6, 12-16)	22	7	20	16	65

C. Mitchell 28 pts  4/9 FTs

D. Lee 16 pts  2 3pm  2/2 FTs

McKinley outlasted Kalani at Kalani's gymnasium on Saturday night, 75-65 to improve to 2-0 in the O'ahu Interscholastic Association East. The Tigers of the OIA Red East improves to 2-0 in league play, 10-2 overall while Kalani of the OIA White East drops to 1-1 in league play, 5-9 overall.

Free throws were a big difference down the stretch as the Tigers made 77 percent (24-of-31) of their free throws for the game. McKinley had four players scoring in double-digits: Dayton Lee led the Tigers with 16 points including two 3-pointers, Dan Villejo chipped in 14 points (12 of them coming in the fourth quarter), Lanson Hino contributed 12 points (6-of-6 from the free throw line) and Macjun Otarra added 12 points from the post.

In the first quarter, Kalani outscored McKinley 22-17. Brandon Roberts (12 points) and Cory Mitchell (8 points) combined for 20 of Kalani's 22 first quarter points.

In the second quarter, McKinley chipped away at the lead as they started the quarter on a 5-1 run and Kalani called a timeout at 5:59. Kaimi Kini had a fast break layup to give the Tigers a 25-23 lead, their first lead since the opening basket of the first quarter. The Tigers pushed the lead to 30-23 after Dan Villejo drove it down the middle and kicked it out to Dayton Lee for a 3-pointer from the right wing. Mitchell scored 6 of the Falcons' 7 second quarter points.

"We knew we were going to get into a battle with Kalani. They play just like us, they have great guard play. I think how we got back into the game is our pressure, we try to tire teams out with full court pressure and to get easy buckets. We could see that they are great shooters so hopefully their legs got tired and shots got shorter, but it was a great team effort for us," said McKinley coach Duane Omori.

The Tigers outscored the Falcons 21-7 in the second quarter and took a 38-29 lead going into halftime.

In the third quarter, Brandon Roberts picked up his fourth foul 15 seconds into the third quarter after being called for a charge. Kalani made a 6-2 run to start the quarter and McKinley called a timeout at 4:31. Kalani's Jaron Yamauchi had a put back in transition to put the Falcons back up 49-48. However, McKinley's Brennan Waters made two free throws to make it 50-49 heading into the fourth quarter.

"We knew that Kalani was going to make a run, it's tough to play them at home and like I said our strength is our speed so we try to emphasize and use that to our strength with our full court press and get buckets," said Omori.

To start the fourth quarter, Alexander Tungpalan had a fast break layup to put the Falcons up, 51-50. Dan Villejo made 10-of-12 free throws and scored 12 of his 14 points in the quarter. The Tigers outscored the Falcons 25-16 in the quarter and 14 of their points came from the free throw line. When Kalani started making a run, McKinley was able to keep them at bay and converted their free throw attempts as they went 14-of-17. Falcons resorted to fouling in the end, but Villejo stepped up to the free throw line and pushed the lead up to 10.

"Free throws is something we've been concentrating on in practice. In our history, we haven't been a great free throw shooting team so we focused on that and emphasized taking our time before shooting free throws and it pays off in the end. At the end of the game, we're all tired and came through making their free throws," said Omori.  

Cory Mitchell finished with a game-high 28 points for the Falcons and Brandon Roberts had 12 points (all in the first quarter).

McKinley hosts Roosevelt on Jan. 8 at 7 pm while Kalani travels to Kailua at 7 pm on the same night.