By JOE FERRARO Stephens Media ADVERTISING HONOKAA — They asserted themselves on the boards but had nothing to show for it in the first quarter. But once Hunter Liftee and the Honokaa Dragons started taking advantage of their strong offensive
By JOE FERRARO
Stephens Media
HONOKAA — They asserted themselves on the boards but had nothing to show for it in the first quarter.
But once Hunter Liftee and the Honokaa Dragons started taking advantage of their strong offensive rebounding, everything else fell into place Friday at Honokaa Armory.
Liftee asserted herself on the boards and in the post, scoring 15 points as Honokaa defeated Kohala 57-35 in a Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division II girls basketball game.
After the Cowgirls took a 12-6 lead with 8.9 seconds left in the first quarter, the 5-foot-8 Liftee scored the game’s next nine points, giving Honokaa (2-0) a 15-12 advantage with 6:05 left in the first half.
“(The coaching staff) said to look for me a lot, and that’s why I scored a lot,” Liftee said.
Dragons coach James Lukzen stressed feeding the ball to Liftee on the block because she could use her size advantage over smaller Cowgirl defenders.
While Liftee, a sophomore, scored two layups on interior feeds in the first half, she also scored two baskets on putbacks, and her teammates followed suit.
Twelve of Honokaa’s 14 second-quarter points come on second-chance opportunities, with Liftee and 5-7 senior forward Precious Chong consistently crashing the boards as the Dragons took a 23-18 halftime lead.
“(Rebounding) was very important,” Lukzen said. “Kohala, they’re not very tall, but they’re scrappy. If you don’t put a body on them, they’ll get on the ground and get the ball. They have a lot of hustle.
“This was a very scary game for us in the first half.”
Honokaa did just as well on the offensive glass in the first quarter but missed several shots underneath the basket. On back-to-back possessions, the Dragons grabbed five offensive rebounds but failed to score.
Both Honokaa and Kohala (1-1) shot 23 percent from the field in the first half, but the Dragons shot 80 percent in the third quarter thanks to a strong transition game.
Kohala pulled within 31-25 when senior guard Chyler Imai turned a steal into a fast-break layup. But the Dragons then closed out the quarter on a 12-0 run, with sophomore guard Shemika Frazier scoring six of her nine points during the spurt.
Frazier’s one-handed shot from the free-throw line just before the buzzer gave Honokaa a 43-25 advantage.
Chong and freshman point guard Jasmine Castro also scored nine points in the contest.
Imai, who led the Cowgirls with 11 points, excelled scoring off penetration in the first half.
“And I thought Chyler, for being as short as she is (at 5-4), got quite a few rebounds,” Kohala coach Julie McPeek said.
But the Dragons did a better job closing the penetration lanes for the rest of the game.
“We talked to the girls about help defense and to get out on their shooters,” Lukzen said.
Junior forward Sheana Cazimero added nine points, and senior Jordelle Antonio had eight for Kohala.
In the JV game, Honokaa defeated Kohala 64-24. Kayla Requelman led the Dragons with 19 points, while Hildhang Adona and Halana Bertelmann-Makanani scored 17 and 16, respectively.
Mohana Kaholoaa Kumukoa led Kohala with seven points.
Kohala 12 6 7 10 —35
Honokaa 9 14 20 14 —57
