Kalaheo outlasted McKinley, 48-34, to earn a grind-it-out road victory to open up the Stangs' OIA regular season campaign.

Led by Josh Ko's 8 first quarter points, Kalaheo established a 15-3 advantage late in the period, but surrendered 2 big buckets in the closing minute, allowing McKinley to trim the margin to seven.

"We don't take care of the ball of out bounds, we let them hit a three, and that got their run going," said Kalaheo head coach Alika Smith.

The Tigers' scoring run expanded from 5, all the way to 15 unanswered, during which McKinley would take a brief lead at 19-17. The drought lasted all the way to 3:25 mark of the 2nd, until an Anthony Rowan layup finally got the Stangs on the board in the period.

Kurt Vegas ended the half for Kalaheo with a pair of baskets however, to inch the Stangs into the lead at halftime, 23-21.

Kalaheo opened up the second half much like they did the first, outscoring McKinley 13-4 over the first six minutes to build a double-digit margin.

"We tried to get more ball movement, everybody touching the ball, and we tried to get good shots," said Smith.

Leading the way was Kalei Zuttermeister, who scored 6 points in the quarter, one of four Mustangs to score in the period. The Tigers responded with 6 points of their own from post Jared Malaga, but the Stangs' would lead 38-31 after three.

The fourth quarter saw Kalaheo lock down things defensively on one end of the court, while taking a bit of air out of the ball on the other, holding McKinley scoreless for nearly 6 minutes.

"Defensively, Derick (Morgan) played outstanding, Shem (Sukumaran) played outstanding, on two of their best players," remarked Smith. "It was a total team contribution on the defensive end."

AJ Ortaleza, who led the Tigers with 5 first-half points, was held scoreless until the 2:02 mark in the fourth, as his three-pointer from the left corner over an arm-extended Sukumaran would be the only points scored in the final period for McKinley.

"As far as we went last year and won the state championship (for Division II), we concentrated on defense and we gotta get back to that," said Smith. "At halftime I told the kids, the only way we're going to win this game is if we play defense."

The Stangs did just that, holding the Tigers to just 13 points after the intermission.

The trio of Ko, Sukumaran and Zuttermeister would each score in double-figures, accouting for 32 of the 48 Kalaheo points.

Ortaleza led the Tigers with 8 points, including 3-of-4 from the charity stripe.