Roosevelt gets defensive in win

Roosevelt’s girls basketball team begins every practice with defensive drills. Likewise, the Rough Riders’ production on game night starts with their effort on the defensive end of the court.

In effectively pursuing the ball, fifth-ranked Roosevelt kept the rest of the OIA East on the chase on Friday, remaining undefeated in league play with a 55-42 win over Moanalua.

The Rough Riders’ pressure ignited a balanced offensive performance, with four players finishing with double-figure point totals.

"We work a lot on ball pressure and staying quick on our feet," said Roosevelt guard Devyn Kauhi, who led the Rough Riders (8-0 OIA East) with 14 points.

"Always in the beginning (of practice), always hard, always fast and the better we do the quicker we get to other stuff, which is good because it’s really hard."

The Rough Riders also got contributions in the post from senior Alexis Bennett and freshman Chelsea Wong, who both finished with 10 points. Sophomore guard Starr Rivera added another 10 off the bench.

"It’s been like that throughout our season; we don’t have one dominant scorer," Roosevelt coach Hinano Higa said. "Usually you’re on a team with one or two of them; on this one it could be one to five of them. It’s pretty balanced."

Moanalua’s Lachae McColor scored a game-high 21 points, eight coming in the first quarter when Roosevelt built a 20-14 lead. The Rough Riders kept the ball away from McColor for much of the second and third quarters, limiting her to two points, while pushing the lead to 16 entering the final period.

After Moanalua (5-3) closed to 22-18 with 5:28 left in the second quarter, the Rough Riders shut out Na Menehune over the remainder of the period and took a 29-18 lead into halftime.

"They put a lot of pressure the entire game. They did a good job with their rotation; they’re a deep team, athletic team, fast team," Moanalua coach Dane Canida said.

"We were trying to get the looks, but credit to Roosevelt putting the pressure on. We couldn’t get into our sets and took away some options we were looking for coming into this game."

Moanalua hit its first two shots of the third quarter and trailed 31-22 after Miki Sylva dropped in a short jumper at the 6:36 mark. Roosevelt didn’t allow another field goal until McColor hit a driving shot with 4:25 left in the fourth.

By then the Rough Riders, who made 10 steals in the third quarter, had an 18-point lead.

"Our girls run hard, they play hard, so I let them read the floor and see what they can get out of (steals)," Higa said. "It creates a lot of offense if we can get those turnovers."