Lahainaluna's Folau Hafoka puts up a shot in the paint against Punahou. Brien Ing | SL

View image 1 of 1

---

Lahainaluna's Folau Hafoka puts up a shot in the paint against Punahou. Brien Ing | SL

View image 1 of 1

---

Lahainaluna, Roosevelt and Iolani each finished with sparkling 3-0 records at the Ted Fukushima Girls Basketball Invitational held at Kaiser High School gymnasium.

Five teams participating in the two-day invitational represented their respective leagues in last year's state basketball championships, including reigning Division I champion Punahou, runner-up Lahainaluna, semifinalist Hilo and quarterfinalist Roosevelt, along with Division II titlist Honokaa.

"That's why we come to this tournament, to get the opportunity to play the best teams in the state," said Lahainaluna head coach Todd Rickard. "You know you're going to see these teams in the state (tournament) again. So if we to want to get younger girls, if we want to our team to play better, we got to play good competition."

The Lunas opened up on Saturday with a 69-34 win over the host Cougars, and then rolled past Leilehua, 65-43, later that afternoon. On Sunday, Lahainaluna needed overtime to edge defending D1 state champ Punahou, 51-49.

"We don't have the depth like we had in the past so I think we have to rely on each other more and move the ball a little bit better, we gotta play team defense," said Rickard.

Roosevelt ran past Honokaa (53-18), then squeaked past the Buffanblu, 47-46, before taking down Hilo in a back-and-forth contest, 48-42.

"We played some tough teams as far as those that I think will be in the state tournament good look for us to see how far are as of five days of practice," said Roosevelt head coach Hinano Higa. "Got a lot of work to do, die hard until the end, we're looking forward to a good preseason as well as our regular season."

Iolani dispatched Leielhua (54-36), Honokaa (55-30) and Kaiser (62-13).

Hilo and Punahou posted just one win each in the two-day invitational.