Kahuku, Saint Louis to settle season score in D1 state semifinals

Greg Yamamoto | SL

Red Raiders and Crusaders round three.

Kahuku rode the hot shooting of Kashus Daly en route to a 57-50 win over Iolani, while Saint Louis got a combined 36 points from the duo of Zion Lefotu and Keanu Meacham to dispatch the Bears, 56-41, setting up the rubber match between the two squads with a finals berth on the line in the Hawaii Army National Guard/HHSAA Divsion I Boys Basketball Championships.

In the two meetings between the teams, the Crusaders won the opening tilt 62-58 back on Nov. 28, while the Red Raiders took the second round, 51-47, in game played at Farrington on Dec. 12.

Besides the welcomed offensive output against iolani, the 18 points scored by Kashus Daly was welcome sight for the junior guard coming off of a less than stellar night in the OIA championship game against Kailua.

"It felt good today (compared to) the OIA championship (game) where I didn't do too good," said Daly. "So I had to come and hit some shots."

And hit some he did in spades, knocking down 6 of 7 shots from the field including two threes, after knocking down just 1 of 11 against the Surfriders.

Kahuku led 25-19 at halftime, but saw Iolani force its way back in the contest in the third, outscoring the Red Raiders 16-11 to make it just a one-point margin heading into the fourth, and brielfy tied the game at 38-all on an Ayden Goo three with just over seven minutes left in regulation.

From there, the Red Raiders would not surrender the lead, but certainly made things a bit more interesting than they needed to, missing 9 of 11 down the stretch to leave the door more than ajar for an Iolani comeback.

Luckily for the OIA champs, the Raiders had its own set of struggles at the line, making just 3 of 8 in the fourth quarter.

Defense was the name of the game, as both squads shot just over 40 percent from the floor. Kahuku hit seven threes, but needed 17 attempts to do so.

Kahuku did best Iolani in steals (9 to 2), blocks (2 to 0) and turnover margin (-6), and did well to hold Declan Beckette, the Raiders' leading scorer to 13 points on 2 of 9 shooting from the field.

"We put Noah (Feinga) on him becauyse he's very physical and he's our best defender, but I mean, defense is a whole team (effort) it's five people," said Daly.

Beckette hit 9 of 12 free throws to account for the majority of his scoring output.

In the second semifinal at Kamehameha, Saint Louis took control early and never looked back in a 56-41 win over Baldwin.

Zion Lefotu racked up 21 points and shot 10 of 10 from the free throw line, while Keanu Meacham had a quiet 15 points of his own to pace the Crusaders, who led 24-7 after the opening period.

Saint Louis enjoyed a 35-19 edge in reboundis and made more free throws (16) than the Bears' attempted (15).