Kaiser holds off late Hawaii Baptist rally in first preseason action

Greg Yamamoto | SL

Kaiser jumped out to an 18-6 first quarter advantage and weathered a second half rally by Hawaii Baptist to post a season-opening 63-54 win.

The Cougars were led by Noah Itokazu, who scored 11 of his 13 team-high points in the first half, including three triples, and Mano Tiritas added 11 points of his own, knocking down 9 of 10 free throws in the process.

Hawaii Baptist trailed by 17 at the half, but outscored the home team 39-31 down the stretch, led by Matthew Shigetani, who scored a game-high 20 points on the evening, 11 of those coming in the fourth quarter alone.

The Eagles had just eight players active in the contest, while Kaiser had 15, and each team gave minutes to every player listed on the scorebook.

Hawaii Baptist hit just 14 of 29 free throws in the game, while Kaiser knocked down 12 of 15.

Kaiser, who finished 2-8 last year in league play, lost leading scorer Trey Toyama to graduation but returns four of its leading scorers in Tiritas and Itozaku, along with Caleb Young and Billy Dunbar.

Hawaii Baptist (6-10 in 2023) returns its second leading scorer with Shigetani back, but lost a key scorer in 2nd team All-Hawaii guard Eli Shibuya, who averaged 22 points per game last season.