Kaiser headed to states

Nicole Lehner transferred to Kaiser partly because she hoped to end her senior season playing in the state tournament.

Last night's win guaranteed she'd get her wish.

Lehner poured in a game-high 22 points and center Kilo Alia added 15 as No. 8 Kaiser advanced to the semifinals of the Oahu Interscholastic Association playoffs with a 50-28 victory yesterday over the host Rams.

Lehner, who's averaging nearly 20 points a game in the team's last three contests, again was the difference for the Cougars. She scored half of Kaiser's third-quarter points -- the Cougars (10-4) outscored the Rams (11-2) 12-4 in that period to push their lead to 14.

"I think it's just a matter of her getting more confidence as the season has gone along," Kaiser coach Lisa Mann said.

Lehner also made her presence felt at the defensive end of the floor, hounding Radford's Tereva Moore, the team's leading scorer, all game long. Moore finished with just nine points.

"We just tried to be tenacious guarding (Moore)," Lehner said. "We did a better job of boxing her out and then starting hitting open shots."

"We sent one person to guard her the whole time to try to take her out of her game," Mann added. "Nicole and Jolly (Yoshino) did an excellent job of limiting her chances in the second half."

Moore had all nine of her points in the first half as Radford trailed by just six at halftime. But the Cougars managed to force more turnovers with their full-court pressure, and also managed to get the ball inside to Kilioe Aliifua, who had 11 of her 15 in the final two quarters.

"Coach told us at halftime we needed to click it on more and be more aggressive, and we did that," Aliifua said.

Outrebounded 16-9 in the first half, the Cougars turned to their bench for help as seldom-used Rene Shitanishi hauled in a game-high eight rebounds.

"She was a big help for us," Mann said. "She's always been good with defense and on the glass, but a lot of times what she does doesn't get noticed."

Nicole Grebe led the Rams with 11 points and six rebounds.

At Radford H.S. gym

Kaiser (10-4)	12	12	12	14	--	50
Radford (11-2)	9	9	4	6	--	28

KAISER--Nicole Lehner 22, Jaime Nerona 2, Kehau Bangay 2, Jolie Yoshino 0, Sharde Pratt 8, Rene Shitanishi 1, Kelsey Beck 0, Kilioe Aliifua 15.
RADFORD--Sonya Legaspi 0, Nicole Grebe 11, Celina Cruz 2, Marlena Malepeai 4, Frances Respicio 0, Tereva Moore 9, Gabby Rellin 0, Marie Fe Bumanglag 0, Chadney Thompson 2, Demi Samson 0, Olivia Stiller 0.
3-point goals -- Kaiser 1 (Lehner), Radford 1(Moore).