Punahou's Kalai Santos dribbles the ball around a Kahuku defender. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Kahuku's Chance Maghanoy and Punahou's Semisi Uluave track a rebound. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Punahou's Dayson Watanabe puts up a layup attempt around a Kahuku defender. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Punahou's Dayson Watanabe heads to the basket against Kahuku. Jim LeBeau | Special to SL

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Wed, Dec 11, 2013 @ Moanalua

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Punahou

70

Kahuku

55

Final	1	2	3	4
Punahou (7-5, 22-5)	18	21	22	9	70
Kahuku (6-6, 13-10)	12	7	16	20	55

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

S. Afalava 14 pts  0/1 FTs

D. Watanabe 15 pts  2 3pm  1/2 FTs

H. Latu 7 tot

B. Wade 4 tot

C. Maghanoy 3 ast

R. Oda 3 ast

After defeating Farrington for the Jim Alegre Invitational title last week, Punahou rolled past Kahuku, another O'ahu Interscholastic Association Red East team, in the opening day of the Moanalua OIA/ILH Challenge at Moanalua High School on Wednesday night. The Challenge matches up schools from the Interscholastic League of Honolulu and schools from the O'ahu Interscholastic Association. Of the four OIA schools, three are OIA Red East teams (Moanalua, Kahuku, and Farrington) while Kalani is from the OIA White.

"I think both tournaments are good for us to play in. We're playing a lot of OIA teams and quality teams that might end up in states. Our goal is to get better everyday and we need to take steps forward everyday instead of any steps back so that's what we need to work on," said Punahou coach Darren Matsuda.

Kahuku took an early 6-5 lead, but it was all Punahou from there as the Buffanblu outscored them 12-7 to close out the first quarter.

The Buffanblu sank seven three-pointers in the first half and Chris Kobayashi scored all 9 of his points off of threes in the second quarter. Punahou took a commanding 39-19 lead going into halftime. They finished 8-of-20 from behind the arc for the game. 

"I think we like this gym, we tend to shoot pretty good in this gym, last year we shot well. I think that team (Kahuku) is going to be a good team at the end of the year. They're young and they got something to build on and they're going to be good," said Matsuda.

Punahou point guard Dayson Watanabe scored 15 points and made two three-pointers to lead all Buffanblu scorers. He has been filling the point guard position nicely as Jordan Tanuvasa recovers from a knee injury. Against Kahuku he attacked the basket and pushed the ball when he needed to in transition.

Daniel Andrews scored 14 points along with four blocks. He also threw down two fast break dunks in the third quarter.

To start the fourth quarter, Kahuku got it going on offense and went on an 8-0 run after a lay up by Wilton Cravens to prompt coach Matsuda to use a full timeout at 5:32 and the score was 61-43. Following the time out, the Red Raiders cut the deficit to 14 after a steal and fast break lay up by Drayton Aki.

"I think they're really long and athletic. Once they start to learn how to play with each other, they're almost all new varsity guys, they're going to be tough. By the end of the year, they might be one of the state teams and they're one of the more athletic teams we faced so far this year," said Matsuda.

However, Punahou responded with 8-0 run and were never threatened for the rest of the game.

Kahuku had the advantage on the boards and outrebounded Punahou 34-24. 

Soli Afalava led the Red Raiders with 14 points and 7 rebounds and Hirkley Latu added 9 points, 7 rebounds and freshman guard Keanu Akina chipped in 8 points including two three-pointers.