Reserves helped Spartans overwhelm Warriors

Maryknoll reserve Kodee Viena passes the ball to a teammate. She knocked down two treys to help the Spartans in the win. Steve Erler | Special to SL

Maryknoll got a huge effort from its bench to run past Kamehameha, 57-40, in both team's Interscholastic League of Honolulu regular season-opener Tuesday night.

The Spartans' reserves were able to outscore the Kamehameha bench 23 to 12 to help the defending ILH champions notch their seventh straight win (7-0 overall, 1-0 ILH).

"I think we're going to try and utilize our depth as much as we can this year," said Maryknoll coach Chico Furtado. "I think the ILH is pretty balanced and on any given night somebody can beat somebody. We want to make sure we use a lot of players, especially if we're going to be pressing and pressuring the floor."

Maryknoll jumped out to an early 8-3 lead, but turned it over nine times and trailed 12-9 after the opening period.

"I think that's because we've had our way with teams in the preseason," Furtado said on the first quarter. "Now all of a sudden we're in a (close) game and some of our players try to take things upon themselves instead of within the team concept."

A big reason why the Spartans were able to comeback was because of their 3-point shooting. The bench helped the effort with five of the team's eight total triples. Reserve Siera Murobayashi's first trey of the night helped give Maryknoll the lead for good in the second quarter, 18-17.

"Our bench definitely came through tonight," said senior guard Alexis Delovio. "It's hard to come off the bench and hit threes like that."

Ysabelle Halemano was the leading the scorer off the Spartans' bench with eight points on 3-for-4 shooting, doing most of her work in the third quarter when Maryknoll outscored Kamehameha 18 to 9.

Murobayashi and backup Kodee Viena each knocked down two triples apiece to finish with six points and reserve post Isabella Cravens chipped in three points, three rebounds and a blocked shot.

Kamehameha coach Joe Cho was impressed with the Maryknoll bench.

"They stepped it up," he said. "It didn't expect that to tell you the truth. That's where we have to capitalize because I think we're deeper. One of my coaches said ‘we didn't get a big enough lead even against their bench,' and we should, so it's a credit to them. Obviously they stepped it up and did what they're supposed to do."

Reach Michael Lasquero at [email protected].