Moanalua's Kyrie McRaven scored a game-high 24 points in a first round win over Radford in the OIA Division I playoffs. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Fri, Feb 13, 2015 @ Moanalua

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Radford

35

Moanalua

69

Final	1	2	3	4
Radford (6-5, 11-13)	4	9	10	12	35
Moanalua (8-7, 16-14)	20	18	18	13	69

K. McRaven 25 pts  9/10 FTs

J. Horton 9 pts  1 3pm  2/6 FTs

SALT LAKE — A big first half propelled Moanalua past their Salt Lake district rivals, Radford, 69-35 in the opening round of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Red Division Playoffs at Moanalua High School on Friday night.

The Na Menehune (6-5 OIA, 13-11 overall), who finished fifth in the OIA East standings advance to play at the OIA West's top seed, Leilehua on Saturday night at 7 p.m. The Rams, who finished fifth in the OIA West standings end their season at 6-4 OIA, 11-13 overall.

"This is a good win, but we have to shower this off. We have another game tomorrow against another tough team so we have to be ready," said Kyrie McRaven.

McRaven led all scorers with 25 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and shot 9 of 10 from the free throw line. James Wilkins added 10 points—all in the paint to go along with seven rebounds.

"He looks for the contact and now he's going to the free throw line to hit free throws. That wasn't the case early in the season. To his credit, he's put time in at the free throw line, now he's knocking down 75-80 percent so I'm proud of him for that for working to be a complete player," said Moanalua coach Byron Mello, on McRaven.

Moanalua established their post game early as Kyrie McRaven and James Wilkins combined for eight-straight points in the paint forcing the Rams to call a timeout at 5:27.

"We play our offense inside-out. Tonight was the best example of that all year and I was pleased with that," said Mello.

McRaven scored 10 of the team's 20 first quarter points. It was 18-0 until about the 1:52 mark after Izaiah Lavatai scored Radford's first basket and Latoine Thompson hit a shot before the buzzer. Moanalua outscored Radford 20-4.

"That's our mentality as a team, coach wants us to come out with fire," said McRaven. "They had some size somewhat, in order for us to start with a lot of energy, a lot of fire, I needed to bring it, that was my mentality before the game started."

Karson Cruz came off the bench to score five straight points to start the second quarter. At the 5:32 mark, coach Mello was assessed a technical foul. Jordan Riley made 1 of 2 free throws to start a 5-0 run. However, Moanalua closed out the quarter on a 11-3 run to go up with a comfortable 38-13 lead at halftime.

The Na Menehune turned up the pressure on defense to fuel their offense.

"We worked on our defense in the past couple practices. Coach emphasized toughness on defense and we looked at the tape and our defense wasn't there. He preached that a lot in practices and responded well," said McRaven.

"Our zone-press was really effective tonight and we got touches and controlled the tempo of the game. When you got guys like Kyrie, James and Karson who are great rebounders. If we're holding a team to one shot and we're getting the ball out, I like our chances in the open court," said Mello.

The Rams shot 13 of 26 (50 percent) from the free throw line for the game while the Na Menehune shot 14 of 19 (73.7 percent).

Izaiah Lavatai scored six of his nine points in the third quarter. He went 5 of 6 from the free throw line for the game. Jay Horton also added nine points and made a 3-pointer.

Moanalua's bench stepped up and picked up where the starters left off. Na Menehune got 26 bench points for the game and Mello was able to play all reserves in the second half.

"That's the thing with our team, whenever we play good it carries to the whole entire team. That's what we want to do, once we start playing well individually, the guy is going to do even better," said McRaven.

"We talked about different themes—be your best when your best is needed. We're trying to be a great team and trying to peak at the right time. We had a good four days of practice and it carried over to tonight. It was a total team effort, we got production from everyone who stepped on the court tonight," said Mello.