Kamehameha's Nihoa Dunn puts up a shot against Hamilton's Callie Hinder in the first quarter of the I Mua Invitational championship final. Michael Lasquero | SL

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Sat, Dec 2, 2023 @ Kamehameha

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Hamilton

50

Kamehameha

57

Final	1	2	3	4
Hamilton	11	10	15	14	50
Kamehameha (4-6, 17-8)	11	17	14	15	57

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists

N. Dunn 18 pts  2/4 FTs

E. Malee 11 pts  1 3pm  0/0 FTs

N. Dunn 8 tot  3 off  5 def

E. Malee 8 tot  2 off  6 def

M. Labanon 4 ast

R. Farrington 4 ast

KAPALAMA HEIGHTS — The Kamehameha-Kapalama girls basketball team rose to the occasion against its toughest test of the preseason Saturday night.

The Warriors remained unbeaten through the first three weeks of preseason play with a 57-50 win over Hamilton (Chandler, Ariz.) in the championship final of the second annual I Mua Invitational at Kekuhaupio Gymnasium.

Led by Nihoa Dunn's 18 points and eight rebounds, three players scored in double figures to help Kamehameha improve to 7-0 on the year.

Makenzie Alapai scored 11 points on three made 3-pointers and six rebounds, Mikylah Labanon had 11 points with four assists and Rylee Cabuyadao-Caswell filled the stat sheet with eight points, seven rebounds, three steals and two made triples to round out the top scorers for the Warriors.

Both teams scored 11 points in the opening period before Kamehameha used a 11-0 run in the second quarter to take a 28-21 halftime lead at the break.

The Warriors went 11-deep in their rotation against the Huskies and was able to pressure the visitors into 16 turnovers, 10 of which came in the first half.

"Preseason, we're just looking to get better," said Kamehameha coach Pualei Straight. "I think for us, we're really trying to solidify our identity defensively. That was a big thing for us, and being able to build confidence in our defense and our depth."

The matchup against Hamilton also gave the Warriors an opportunity to go against some size and length that they wouldn't normally face in regular season play against Hawaii competition. At 6-foot-6, sophomore Callie Hinder (eight rebounds, 10 blocks) gave Kamehameha fits when driving into the paint.

"I don't normally get the opportunity to play against people of that height, so I had to take advantage of it and learn from it," said Dunn, who scored eight of her game-high 18 points in the first quarter.

Kamehameha neutralized Hamilton's size and length with a deep bench that pushed the pace and tempo.

"We feel like personally we're a deep team," said Straight. "We also run our team a lot in practice and we feel like we're in good condition so our best way to getting to that is full court pressure and we have lot of athletic bigs as well."

The Warriors also have many returnees from last year's team. Their chemistry was on full display on two 3-pointers by Alapai. In the middle of their 11-0 second-quarter run, Alapai knocked down a wide-open triple to give Kamehameha a 18-15 lead after the Warriors nearly turned it over. A similar situation happened in the fourth quarter when Labanon saved a turnover by getting the ball to Rylee Paranada, who swung the ball around to a wide-open Alapai for a 3-point ball that made the score 55-48 with 1:12 left in the game.

"We have pretty much a full team of returning players which is amazing," said Straight. "Last year we were really young. We had five freshman, five sophomores and now they're all returnees, so they've had a lot of time to play together."

"Our team works together really well, we have a lot of chemistry," added Dunn. "I think we have that vision. We know where everybody else is. At the same time, we trust each other to back us up and pick us up after our mistakes."

The Warriors made six total 3-pointers in the game, with five of them coming in the second half. A pair of 3-pointers by Cabuyadao-Caswell in the third quarter gave Kamehameha its largest lead of the game, 42-30.

"I was just so happy on that. It brought the energy up and it just inspires us," Dunn said of the Warriors' 3-point shooting. "Once we start getting our 3s going everything just keeps coming to us."

Ella Malee and Kayla Adams scored 11 and 10 points respectively to lead the Huskies in the loss.