Boys basketball comes alive in second half to defeat Kalaheo
Michael Barcelona tries to weave around a Kalaheo defender to get to the basket.
January 11, 2023
If you judged the Moanalua High School boys basketball team by their first quarter statistics, you might be a little worried. Last Saturday’s game against perennial OIA East rival Kalaheo High School forced Na Menehune (10-8 overall, 5-2 East) to do a little scrambling, but the team eventually emerged as 67-51 victors.
Kalaheo came onto the court fast and aggressively. After the first eight minutes, the Mustangs were up 19-8.
The Menehune clawed back, but even at the half, the score was 36-27 Kalaheo. Eventually, Moanalua found its rhythm and began shooting with more confidence and accuracy.
Skylar Miyasato was the night’s high scorer with 21 points. Ruben Chavez followed with 12, and Cyrus Faradineh contributed 9 more.
Kalaheo (6-11 overall, 2-4 East) ran into foul trouble in the second half, which took some of their players off the court.
“We tend to start slow,” Miyasato said. “We’re trying to fix that.”
He said the team knows that when the state tournament comes up, Moanalua could be facing even tougher schools and they want to be ready for them.
“We want to be able to start strong and finish all the way through,” he said.
