Brooke Ho scores 12 points helping Kaiser defeat undefeated Farrington in an OIA girls basketball matchup. Greg Yamamoto | SL

Purchase image 1 of 1

Hawaii Kai – The Kaiser Lady Cougars (4-0) used a ferocious defense to fluster the Farrington Lady Governors (2-1) in a battle of Oahu Interscholastic Association East undefeated teams with a 49-32 victory Tuesday night.

This was the first big test for both teams as they tried to keep pace with perennial East powers Roosevelt who came away victorious to tie with Kaiser atop the standings along with Kailua.

The Lady Cougars caused as many turnovers (32) as points they allowed to their opponent. An impressive statistic that helped to continue their winning ways.

"Farrington is a tough team no matter how the score came out to be this is always a good win. I think we played good defense. We still had a litttle bit malfunctions just ‘brain farts' out there," said Kaiser head coach Simon Bitanga.

"We're working on trapping this whole Christmas break. Defense is our main goal. We focus on defesne a lot and we don't really go over offense in practice we just focus on defense," said Junior guard Rose Shimaoka.

A crowd of a little over 100 saw Kaiser use a 9-0 run to begin the game before the Farrington offense woke up to make the score 14-7 at the end of the first quarter. Shimaoka dropped seven points to lead her team in the quarter.

"I wanted everyone to get into the game and have points in the game. I just passed the ball to get the 100% shot," said Shimaoka who finished with 17 points, seven steals, six rebounds, and four assists.

The second stanza began with an 11-0 run by the Lady Cougars and they never looked back. Kaiser used a 3-quarters of the court pressure defense and held the Lady Governors to just three points making the score 29-10 at the half.

After intermission more of the same came from Kaiser as Junior Forward Brooke Ho was able to contribute six of her 12 points in the third quarter. Ho also finished with six rebounds (5 offensive) and two blocks. Ho showed off several power moves and received some nice passes from Shimaoka as Kaiser extended their lead to 43-14.

Farrington did not quit as they tried to make a game out of it in the fourth quarter by putting up a game best 18 points as a team. The Lady Governors went on a 10-0 run to begin the quarter that featured back to back three pointers from 5-foot-2 guard Allani Talapu. Talapu finished with six points, seven rebounds, and two blocks.

Offensively Farrington was led by Molimau Heimuli who finished with a double-double 10 points and 10 rebounds. Just three days ago Heimuli had a 33 point performance against Kalani.

In the end Heimuli and the Lady Governors just couldn't find a hole in the Kaiser defense and suffered their first loss in league play.

"We worked on defense and we came up with a zone to double her (Heimuli), but we came out early with the lead and just stuck with the man," said Bitanga. "I'm proud of my girls they're learning and getting better every day. We'll probably take off till Saturday. That's my present to them"

Both squads will take a few days off for the holidays and will resume league play next Tuesday December 30th. Kaiser will travel to East rival Kalani while Farrington will host OIA White division Anuenue. Both games will be approximately at 7 p.m. following the J.V. games.