Waiakea High’s girls varsity basketball team notched one last victory on its home court ahead of this week’s state playoffs, crushing visiting Moanalua High 61-44 on Monday night in Hilo.
The Warriors will now advance to the HHSAA DI quarterfinals, where they will face No. 4 Lahainaluna High at 7 p.m. tonight at McKinley High in Honolulu.
WHS came out hot, outscoring Na Menehune 22-7 during the first quarter. Waiakea’s Jolie Mantz scored 11 points on three field goals, a three-pointer and two free throws — while teammate Pua‘ena Herrington put up eight points on two FG’s, a three and a free throw.
Moanalua kept up in the second quarter, locking the Warriors down inside the arc to match Waiakea’s score 14-14. WHS stayed dangerous from downtown, sinking a team total of four threes — two by Hannah Iwahiro, and one each by Mantz and Faith Grover.
After emerging from halftime ahead by 36-21, Waiakea grew its lead by outscoring Moanalua 11-8 in the third frame. Herrington and Mantz were the only Warriors to score during the quarter, respectively putting up six points and five points.
Na Menehune finally outscored Waiakea in the fourth quarter, 15-14 — but the one-point leg up was not nearly enough to make up for their slow start.
The game scorecard and the HHSAA’s game stats did not match up. According to the scorecard recorded at the game, Mantz led with 20 points and Herrington scored 18. Per the HHSAA, Herrington scored 21 and Mantz scored 17.
The HHSAA stats also showed the Mantz notched 10 rebounds and Herrington notched 18.
Both stat sheets showed that Iwahiro scored 12 points for Waiakea, going four-for-six from the arc.
Moanalua was led by Shailoh Li‘ili‘i and Jamie Smith with ten points each.
The Warriors moved to 16-5 overall and 2-1 in the postseason, including BIIF playoffs.
Maui Interscholastic League champion Lahainaluna is 12-1 in MIL play and 13-5 overall.
The Warriors and the Lunas played against each other during a November preseason tournament at Konawaena High, where Waiakea won 63-51.
The Lunas are led by the scoring of 5’11 Lola Donez (26.7 ppg) and 5’8 Juseana Rae Delatori (17.6 ppg) — a pair that is especially dangerous from beyond the arc, with Delatori totalling 38 threes this season and Donez totalling 24.
ScoringLive ranks Waiakea at No. 6 in the state and Lahainaluna at No. 10.
Today’s other DI quarterfinal matchups are: No. 2 Konawaena (13-1 BIIF, 19-3 ovr.) versus unseeded Radford High (10-3 OIA, 17-4 ovr.), No. 1 ‘Iolani School (9-0 ILH, 20-2 ovr.) versus unseeded Campbell High (12-1 OIA, 18-5 ovr.) and No. 3 Kahuku High (14-0 OIA, 17-5 ovr.) versus unseeded KS-Kapalama (4-6 ILH, 15-7 ovr.).
The losers of each quarterfinal matchup will fall into the fifth-place consolation bracket.
Winners will enter Thursday’s semifinals.
The championship final will be held 7 p.m. Saturday at Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu.