Kailua's Kawehe Hano Kohatsu puts up a shot at the basket against Moanalua. Sylvia Lee | SL

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Kailua's Kamu Scheer heads to the basket against Moanalua. Sylvia Lee | SL

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Moanalua's Aaron Stuart puts up a jumper against Kailua. Sylvia Lee | SL

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Moanalua's Jamaal Willis puts up a jump shot against Kailua. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Kailua's Noah Auld puts up a shot in the interior against Moanalua. Sylvia Lee | SL

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Sat, Feb 1, 2014 @ Moanalua

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Kailua

51

Moanalua

44

Final	1	2	3	4
Kailua (7-5, 11-15)	10	14	13	14	51
Moanalua (10-5, 17-12)	9	12	10	13	44

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

J. Willis 17 pts  3 3pm  0/2 FTs

K. Kohatsu 12 pts  6/6 FTs

A. Hines 7 tot

M. Bishop 9 tot

E. Badua 2 ast

P. Kanoho 2 ast

Salt Lake – The Kailua Surfriders showed off their inside strength to upset the Moanalua Na Menehune, ranked 9th in the ScoringLive/OC16 Boys Basketball Power Rankings, 51-44.

The win secured a spot of for the Surfriders in next week's Oahu Interscholastic Association Boys Basketball Tournament beginning Wednesday. A loss would have spelled the end of the season for the boys of Kailua.

Na Menehune were hoping to have a chance at the second seed in the East and an all important bye in the first round of the OIA playoffs.

"It was a big win for us, our coach told us if we lose this game we might not make it to the playoffs, our season might be over and I'm a senior and this might be my last game so this is very emotional for me and we came out with the victory," commented Kailua senior William Kailimai who finished with 8 points and 5 rebounds.

"Outstanding win, our guys played well tonight, we've been waiting for this all season to put things together and we did it at the right time," said Kailua head coach Wally Marciel after the game.

It was a game runs, as Kailua jumped out early on Moanalua 6-0 to start the game. Na Menehune responded with a 10-0 run in the second to give them their largest lead of the game at 21-14 with 2:39 to play the half.

The 10-0 run included an alley-oop play for senior forward Aaron Stuart from senior guard Jamaal Willis. The 6-foot-2 Stuart came into the game as the leading scorer for Moanalua and 4th in the OIA with 14.7 point per game average, but was held to just 8 points, and 4 rebounds.

The Surfriders answered with a 10-0 run of their own to end the half and took a 24-21 lead into intermission. The run was highlighted by Kailua's only 3-pointer of the night, courtesy of sophomore guard Noah Ahyat.

"That was the big part, that's what we talked about at halftime that we didn't break. That was huge confidence builder for us when we came back and took the lead at the end of the second quarter and went on a 10-0 run on them," remarked Marciel about his teams play in the second quarter.

The third stanza started with a bang as in a three-point bomb from Moanalua's 5-foot-10 Willis to tie the game at 24-all. Willis finished as the game's top scorer with 17 points and 4 steals.

Na Menehune took the lead 29-28 with 4:41 to play in the 3rd quarter when senior guard Antoine Hines hit his only bucket of the night, a 3-pointer that electrified the crowd. The 6-foot Hines finished with 3 points and 7 rebounds.

Moments later, Kailua sophomore guard/forward Noah Auld got a tough basket inside and hit a free throw to complete the 3-point play. The 6-foot-3 Auld finshed with 6 points and was 4-for-5 from the free throw line.

Fellow sophomore guard Kawehe Hano Kohatsu contributed 8 of his team high 12 points in the third quarter, as the Surfriders refused to relinquish the lead from that point on. The 6-foot-3 Kohatsu came into the game as the leading scorer for Kailua at an 8.9 per game average and surpassed it, finishing with 12 points and 4 rebounds.

Down the stretch in the last quarter Moanalua got as close as five but struggled shooting the ball for much of the game, finishing just 27 percent from three and 16 percent from the free throw line for the game.

For the game, Moanalua had Kailua beat in almost every statistical category except field goal percentage and free throw shooting. The Surfriders got a lot of easy buckets going to the basket while Na Menuhune took much more difficult shots further from the rim.

"When we shoot a lot of jump shots early and we're missing them and if that happens we tend to get down on ourselves we tend to fracture and then we have hard time getting back into the game which I think that was the case tonight. Kailua played as a team, we could have been more of a team tonight that's the only thing that I was disappointed about," said Moanalua head coach Bryon Mello.

"It's a great win, we'll go to Monday we'll find out who we play next week Wednesday, we'll make adjustments towards that and hopefully we sneak into the state tournament," said Marciel.

Kailua finished the season with a 7-4 record in the OIA Red East and look to have locked up the fourth seed. Moanalua dropped to 8-3 in league play but still host a first round game as the No. 3 seed out of the East in next week's playoffs.