Dacee Tsue’s tough bucket in the paint tied the game with 11 seconds left in regulation, and the Kaiser girls basketball team went on to edge Roosevelt 58-54 in overtime to gain sole possession of first place in the OIA East.
Kaiser is 10-0 with a regular-season finale at Moanalua on Thursday.
Kaiser rallied from a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit for the win.
“I feel stressful. Still working off the stress even though we won,” Kaiser coach Noah Keolanui said. “We still got one more game. Roosevelt’s the first team that pressed us. We usually press everyone else. It’s either we want it more or they do, and we came out swinging.”
Roosevelt lost for the first time after 10 wins in East play. Freshman Makalah Richardson led the Rough Riders with 19 points, nine rebounds and five blocks. The multi-skilled wing scored 11 points in the third quarter with a series of smooth runners in the lane.
Tsue finished with 11 points and enjoyed senior night festivities after the game as one of only two Cougars seniors.
Sophomore Alexus Ma‘ae helped power the comeback — Kaiser lost an early eight-point lead and was down 44-35 entering the fourth quarter. Ma‘ae had 21 points and 14 rebounds for the Cougars.
Using a fullcourt press from the start, Kaiser went on an 11-2 run to begin the fourth stanza, tying the game on Ma‘ae’s fastbreak layup on a pass from Jamie Kimura.
Down one starter with an injury, Roosevelt was fatigued down the stretch after a player fouled out. Still, Tiana Burgess’ layup on a pass from Kamryn Layug-Delovio gave the visitors a 50-49 lead with 1:18 left in regulation. After two free throws by Makayla Furuto, the lead was three points with 52 seconds remaining.
Ma‘ae hit one of two foul shots to cut the lead to 52-50, and after Furuto missed the front of a 1-and-1 with 39.5 seconds to play, Kaiser had its opportunity.
Ma‘ae missed a shot, got the rebound and Kaiser called time out with 17.2 seconds to go in regulation. Tsue then got her chance, driving through the middle to bank her layup in with 11 seconds to go.
She almost made a colossal blunder, though, nearly fouling Furuto. She dove at the Roosevelt guard, but missed and was stonewalled by Tanya Paia, who was standing nearby.
That turned out to be a lucky play, as Roosevelt advanced the ball and had a wide-open Burgess by the basket, but Layug-Delovio’s pass sailed high and out of bounds with six-tenths of a second left.
Kaiser then took command in overtime with a coast-to-coast layup by Ma‘ae. Tsue added two free throws with 1:07 left for a 56-52 lead.
Burgess hit a layup with 50 seconds left to bring Roosevelt within two, but was unable to foul Kaiser until nabbing Tsue with 13.5 ticks left. Tsue hit her free throws to ice the win.
