MILILANI - With a 20-point half-time lead, Kahuku hoped it could give its legs a break for the upcoming double-elimination part of the O'ahu Interscholastic Association Red girls' basketball tournament.

But Mililani's second-half surge forced the Red Raiders to burn more fuel to hang to a 55-44 win Tuesday in the opening-round of the OIA Red tournament.

The East fifth seed Red Raiders (6-7) will play at East top seed Kaiser (10-2) in one quarterfinal Wednesday at 6 p.m. From this point on, the tournament is double elimination.

The West fourth seed Trojans (6-7) are done for the season.

Kahuku pressured Mililani early, draining three 3-pointers to start the game and taking a commanding 18-8 after the first quarter. The Red Raiders continued the barrage into the second quarter and entered the half with a 35-15 lead.

With a comfortable lead, the Red Raiders opened the second half by passing the ball around and waiting for a good look at the basket. This in hopes of resting their legs for a battled against the Cougars, who beat Kahuku twice in the regular season.

But the Trojans went on an 8-0 run and it took the Red Raiders four minutes, 16 seconds to finally score in the third quarter. The Trojans' 19-9 third quarter cut their deficit to 10.

"Going back-to-back games, that's what our thing was," Kahuku coach David Te'o said. "If we run our legs out, it takes a day to heal. So we were trying to slow the game a little bit, but the moment they reached into our foul trouble, that game changed. Now we had to push the game, instead of slowing it down."

The Red Raiders were slow again to start the fourth quarter, not scoring until 2:10 into the period. The Trojans' Nayla Long's two free throws with 5:28 pulled her team to within 46-39. But Kahuku found the basket when it mattered most and kept the Trojans no closer than 10 points the rest of the way.

Joshy Noga led the Red Raiders with 16 points, including a 3-pointer. Temutisa Te'o addd 13 with two 3's and Jessica Falemalu had 12 with three 3's.

Kellie Sakai led the Trojans with 12 points, followed by Jasmyne Garay's 11.

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