Girls Basketball
Leilehua pulls away from Kaimuki in second half, 36-29


  



Tue, Nov 22, 2016 @ Leilehua


Final 1 2 3 4  
Kaimuki (9-1, 16-11) 4 107829
Leilehua (10-3, 15-12) 10 3 10 1336
S. Todani 14 pts  4 3pm  0/1 FTs
S. Palik 15 pts  7/10 FTs
A. Flores 8 tot  5 off  3 def
V. Kintz 2 ast

WAHIAWA — Size and hustle was the difference between host Leilehua and Kaimuki Tuesday night.

Guard Shaylee Todani scored 14 points with four triples and center Abigail Flores added 10 points and eight boards to help the Mules down the Bulldogs, 36-29, in a preseason contest at Paul T. Kobayashi Gymnasium & Richard Townsend Court.

The matchup featured the two Oahu Interscholastic Association champions from a season ago. Leilehua won the Division I title while Kaimuki won the league's last two Division II championships and will be in Division I this season.

Leilehua gathered 15 total offensive boards and outrebounded Kaimuki, 36 to 25. The extra rebounds led to more shot attempts for the Mules, 46 to 36.

Kaimuki coach Mona Faasoa said the Mules gave her team a chance to work on some of its weaknesses.

"It's always good competition playing with these guys," she said. "We're small so we need to work on boxing out more. We're terrible at boxing out and basically controlling the pace of the game. A lot of teams are really fast so we can't really pick a man because we're not as quick as a lot of these other teams.

"Season starts in two weeks so we're basically trying to find all of our mistakes and find what we need to fine tune and hopefully when season comes around we'll be ready."

The Mules trailed 14-13 at the break, but got a combined 19 points from seniors Todani and Flores in the second half to help the home team pull away.

Todani knocked down back-to-back treys to start the second half and scored a basket through a foul to give Leilehua 21-14 lead that it would not relinquish.

"We always give her the green light," Leilehua coach Elroy Dumlao said of Todani. "She's our veteran leader and we always tell her to look for her shots."

With the Bulldogs' defense having to worry about the perimeter, Flores was able to dominate down low with her height and scored on a handful of putbacks. The senior center should fill a void after losing All-OIA West First Team selection Tywanna Abbott to graduation.

Dumlao said he wants Flores to be more active in the post to give the team a balanced attack.

"She had a terrible first half. She didn't move her feet. She was standing around. She was like at the movies watching the game from there. The past year we had a couple of post players, Tywanna Abbott, and a couple of other players, and (Abigail) was just on for the ride and she kind of got used to that. She's still kind of used to that right now so we tell her this is her time so you have to get moving and be vigilant and be a force so we can have a in-and-out game."

Other key contributors for Leilehua include Kaylen Kamelamela (six points, six rebounds, two assists) and Chyel Palmer (three points, three rebounds, three blocks, two steals).

Defensively the Mules did a solid job of holding 2015 All-Hawaii Division II selections Victoria Kintz and Kaelyn Espinda to six points each. Stepping up to lead the Bulldogs' offense was sophomore Sonia Palik, who converted on seven of her 10 free throw attempts to lead all scorers with 15 points.

"On any given night, you'll see one of (those) three step into it and play a big role," Faasoa said of Kintz, Espinda and Palik. "We're hoping that at least two of them can step up in one game, that will be a lot better. But you'll see an (improved) team during the season, I promise you."



Reach Michael Lasquero at [email protected].




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