Honoka'a's Chancis Fernandez puts up a jump shot against Kalani. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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Honoka'a's Shayla Ignacio goes up for a layup attempt against Kalani. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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Kalani's Taylor Murai goes up for layup against Honoka'a. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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Honoka'a's Eliyah Fernandez puts up a shot against Kalani. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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Thu, Feb 6, 2014 @ Kaimuki

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Kalani

49

Honokaa

61

Final	1	2	3	4
Kalani (4-6, 14-15)	6	8	11	0	49
Honokaa (11-2, 16-3)	10	15	16	0	61

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

H. Liftee 20 pts  4/6 FTs

C. Kakuda 18 pts  1 3pm  9/13 FTs

E. Fernandez 13 tot  3 off  10 def

T. Murai 4 tot  2 off  2 def

C. Fernandez 6 ast

C. Kakuda 6 ast

Top-seeded Honoka'a cruised by Kalani, 61-49 in the quarterfinals of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association Hawaiian Airlines Girls Basketball Division II State Championships at Kaimuki High School on Thursday night. The Dragons advance to the semifinals to play fourth seeded Moloka'i tomorrow at 5 pm. 

"Moloka'i's big and our bigs have to work hard tomorrow night and we're going to have to do the job again and take care of business. Moloka'i's tough and physical so we're going to have to be prepared for that,"  said Honoka'a coach Daphne Honma on their impending matchup with Moloka'i.  

The Dragons got big contributions from Hunter Liftee (20 points and 10 rebounds) and Eliyah Fernandez (18 points and 13 rebounds) as they combined for 38 of Honoka'a's 61 points. Honoka'a used their size advantage to outrebound a smaller Kalani squad, 42-25. 

"That's huge and that was part of our game plan. We wanted to go inside with those girls because we knew we had a height advantage. At the beginning I think our kids were nervous--first game jitters in the States and didn't do what we wanted to do. In the second half, they settled down and started sticking with our game plan," said Honma. 

Honoka'a took a 8-0 lead after a rebound and putback by Eliyah Fernandez and Kalani called timeout at 5:07. Carly Kakuda scored Kalani's first points of the game at 2:05 when she hit both free throws. Kalani's Kassidy Misaki hit a 3-pointer from the right corner to make it 8-5. The Dragons took a 10-6 lead after the first quarter.  

In the second quarter, Kakuda's layup made it 10-8, but Honoka'a scored seven straight points to make it 15-8 after Chancis Fernandez inbounded it to Hunter Liftee for the basket. The Dragons had 14 assists and Chancis Fernandez had six assists to set up her teammates. 

"Our kids have been really good with sharing the ball and that's something that we're fortunate that our kids have good chemistry with each other and I think sometimes they over pass. They look for each other and that's really nice and that's something we told them 'if we have it, we have it'  we'll take it and if not we'll pull it out and run our offense," said Honma on the team sharing the ball. 

The Dragons extended their lead to 12 after Liftee had a 3-point play to make it 23-11. Liftee scored 11 of her 20 points in the first half. Honoka'a led 25-14 at halftime. 

Kalani shot 23.6 percent (13-of-55) from the field and 21.2 percent (7-of-33) from the 3-point line. They shot 59.3 percent (16-of-27) from the free throw line for the game. 

"We knew they like to penetrate and they did a good job getting the ball inside sometimes and they took a lot of shots. Part of it was we wanted to limit the amount of layups that they got and we wanted to make them shoot outside a little more contested, they got a little too much uncontested shots for my liking," said Honma on Kalani. 

In the third quarter, Honoka'a got off to a 12-2 start after Liftee passed it to Eliyah Fernandez who hit a jumper in the paint to make it 37-16. Kalani used a 9-4 run to end the quarter after two free throws from Samantha Shizuru, but the Falcons trailed 41-25 heading into the fourth quarter. 

Honoka'a was able to extend the lead to 20 points in the fourth quarter, but the Falcons were able to outscore the Dragons, 24-20. 

Carly Kakuda led Kalani with 18 points, four rebounds and five steals. 

Kalani will play Kapa'a at Kalani High School tomorrow at 5 pm.