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Roosevelt overcame a 19-15 halftime deficit and held Leilehua scoreless over the final six minutes last night to win, 39-25, and advance past the first round of the O'ahu Interscholastic Association girls basketball playoffs.

The Rough Riders, seeded No. 4 in the OIA Red Conference Eastern Division, improved to 6-7 in league play and will face West champion Kapolei (12-0) in a 6 p.m. second-round game today.

Leilehua, the West's No. 5 seed, ends its season at 5-8.

The Mules started strong last night, leading 6-2 after one period and 19-15 at halftime behind strong post play and solid defense. Mariah Ross' layup 12 seconds into the third quarter extended the lead to 21-15, but Aimee Taniguchi sank two free throws with 5:30 remaining to start Roosevelt on a 9-0 run to put the Rough Riders ahead for good.

After a layup by Elyshia Bowden cut it to 24-23, Breyana Dutro-Solomua answered with a 3-pointer and Abcde Furuta-Harada drained a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Roosevelt a 30-23 lead heading into the fourth.

"They out-rebounded us in the first half and were getting a lot of putbacks, so that's all we talked about at halftime," Rough Riders coach Hinano Higa said. "We just had to take care of the small details like boxing out. In the second half, we didn't let them get any second shots, and I think that gave us confidence in the rest of our game."

Carissa McBride hit a mid-range jumper with 6:03 left to close it to 30-25, but Kira Arruda's 3-pointer two minutes later stretched it to 34-25 and Furuta-Harada scored on back-to-back layups to effectively seal the game with 1:26 remaining.

Leilehua coach Elroy Dumlao said the Mules' fortunes turned when Roosevelt started using a full-court press to force a faster tempo.

"Their pressure took us out of what we wanted to do on offense," Dumlao said. "We couldn't execute."

Arruda led all scorers with 15 points.