Malie Marfil scored 16 points, Camille Feary tallied 15 and Haley Masaki added 13 as No. 6 Kamehameha pulled out a 63-56 win over No. 5 Punahou on Tuesday night at Kekuhaupio Gymnasium.
Kamehameha improved to 2-4 in ILH girls basketball play (11-5 overall) and shares second place with Punahou, which dropped to 2-4 (11-5 overall). Both are tied with Maryknoll and trail No. 1 ‘Iolani in the league standings. The Raiders beat the Spartans 44-35 on Tuesday night.
Feary had a team-high 10 caroms and Marfil grabbed nine rebounds. Senior Lagi Sua-Godinet finished with eight points and eight rebounds, and point guard Maddison Mangalao scored eight, hitting two key free throws down the stretch.
The Warriors saw a 10-point lead disintegrate in the third quarter as the running Buffanblu made a strong push. Tati Burciaga-Reyes scored 10 of her 13 points in the third, including an elbow jumper for a 34-32 Punahou lead.
However, Kamehameha responded with a 10-2 run to close the third stanza. Punahou stayed in range and was within 60-54 after a wing 3 by Melody Lum with 30 seconds left.
After Caitlyn Andrade-Tomimoto hit two foul shots, Punahou was within 60-56, but got no closer. Kamehameha shot 10-for-14 at the charity stripe in the final quarter.
Andrade-Tomimoto led the Buffanblu with 15 points. Burciaga-Reyes had 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Lum tallied 12 points.
“We lost this in the first part of the game,” Buffanblu coach Gary Pacarro said. “A lot of it was nerves. There’s some things they’ve got to overcome, but we’ll get there. Our defense did OK. We didn’t give them too many second-chance opportunities. Kamehameha’s penetration is tremendous.”
Burciaga-Reyes was scoreless in the first half, but seemingly unstoppable after that.
“This is a good breakout game for Tati,” Pacarro added.