Moanalua's Isaiah Jackson dribbles the ball past Farrington's Ed Ped. Jackson scored 12 points in Na Menehune's first regular season win. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Mon, Dec 26, 2016 @ Moanalua

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Farrington

42

Moanalua

54

Final	1	2	3	4
Farrington (6-7, 9-15)	11	11	8	12	42
Moanalua (8-7, 9-17)	8	13	20	13	54

R. Dominguez 15 pts  1/2 FTs

Z. Santiago 18 pts  3 3pm  5/14 FTs

Host Moanalua used a third quarter surge to cruise past Farrington, 54-42, to notch its first win in Oahu Interscholastic Eastern Division play Monday night.

After trailing by one going into the break, 22-21, Na Menehune (1-1 OIA East) outscored Farrington 20-8 in the third quarter using their big men to get easy buckets.

RJ Dominguez, who led Moanalua in scoring, poured in nine of his 15 points in the third quarter alone to help Na Menehune go on a 12-2 run to open the period. 

Moanalua's center, Saige Pulu, contributed six points in the third and finished the game with 10. 

"The game plan was to establish an inside presence offensively," said Moanalua coach Byron Mello. "Tonight we got the ball into our bigs, (Dominguez) and (Pulu), who are tough to guard around the paint, and I thought that was the difference in the game."

Moanalua began to pull away from Farrington after two and-1 layups from Isaiah Sugiura around the five-minute mark. Sugiura finished the game with 8 points.

Taking his teammates lead, Dominguez began his scoring spree with three straight layups in the post, putting his team up 41-30 to end the third quarter.

"Guys put the team first," said Mello. "They were being unselfish, guys weren't concerned with who was getting the credit. Everybody was doing their job."

Na Menehune were able to translate their offensive momentum into defensive stops, holding the Governors to just eight points in the third quarter and 20 points in the second half.

"We've been getting off to slow starts so we wanted to start in a zone," said Mello "I think that allowed us to settle down so when we did go to a man in the second half our legs were a lot fresher."

Despite a strong showing, Mello explained that his team has a lot to improve on in a short period of time. 

"It's the second game of the regular season but with the way this schedule is now a days where everything has been pushed up, not only do we need to get better, we need to get better quickly," said Mello. "I felt like tonight was the first night that we've taken a step in that direction. 

Isaiah Jackson added 12 points to round out the Moanalua players in double figures.

Zeke Santiago led all scorers with 18 points and three 3-pointers to pace the Governors in the loss.

Moanalua will play at Roosevelt on Dec. 30. The Governors move to 0-2 on the season and will play at Kailua on the same date.