Honolulu \u2018Iolani High School\u2019s girls basketball team touched down at LAX on Dec. 23 with two goals: Soak up Disneyland, then win some games.<\/p>\n
The teenagers literally splashed about \u201cThe Happiest Place on Earth\u201d on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and didn\u2019t let a little rain \u2013 OK, at times a downpour \u2013 dampen their fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt made me feel like a kid again,\u201d said \u2018Iolani freshman Charlotte Galloway.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, the Raiders got down to business and, after a slow start, kicked it into gear. The Hawaiian visitors beat La Costa Canyon 57-41 at Canyon Hills High School in the WNBA Gold Division of the SoCal Holiday Prep Classic.<\/p>\n
The tournament features 102 teams competing in 14 divisions, with teams from Canada, New York and across the country. The WNBA Gold is the tournament\u2019s third-highest division.<\/p>\n
The girls from Hawaii are accustomed to winning, having won the state championship five of the past six years. The Raiders finished second last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe like to hang banners,\u201d Justice Kekauoha, a 5-foot-7 junior guard who has Division I offers from Hawaii, Long Beach State, Idaho and Saint Mary\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u2018Iolani trailed by 10 in the first quarter and was still looking at a 26-23 halftime deficit.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo much Disneyland,\u201d said coach Cy Ohta. \u201cWe knew we\u2019d come out slow, but were hoping it wouldn\u2019t be that slow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Kekauoha: \u201cI feel like I was more in a vacation zone the first half.\u201d<\/p>\n
A third quarter sparked by the Raiders\u2019 defense turned things around. \u2018Iolani (8-4) scored more points in the third quarter (24) than it did in the first half, bolting to a 47-35 lead.<\/p>\n
LCC (10-2) turned the ball over on its first two third-quarter possessions. Both were converted into layups and a 27-26 lead, \u2018Iolani\u2019s first of the game. LCC hit just 3 of 17 shots in the quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stress defense,\u201d said Ohta. \u201cThat\u2019s our number one thing, defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a 30-point swing, \u2018Iolani went from trialing by 10 late in the first quarter to leading by 20 in the fourth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have good athletes,\u201d said LCC coach Malcolm Warfield. \u201cThey decided to step up their defense and antagonize our guards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kekauoha scored 15 points, but the breakout star was 6-4 freshman Charlotte Galloway. Before the game, Ohta said Galloway was a \u201cwork in progress.\u201d She progressed by leaps and bounds Saturday, scoring a season-high 18 points. Her previous high was 11.<\/p>\n
LCC, which plays three freshmen, was led by Keani Brown\u2019s 13 points. Freshman Lily Lejeune scored 10 points off the bench.<\/p>\n
LCC is ranked sixth in San Diego by the Union-Tribune, highest among the section\u2019s 21 Division 2 teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe energy level from these kids is fantastic,\u201d said Warfield. \u201cTheir commitment to the game is something special. These kids come in 30 minutes early, leave 30 minutes late. They ask for opportunities to open the gym for extra shots. When you have players like that, you couldn\u2019t ask for more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other scores in the tournament:<\/p>\n
Cathedral Catholic 43, Victory Christian Academy 37: McKinley Hanlon led the Dons (8-4) with 18 points and freshman Addie Yang added 15.<\/p>\n
Canyon Hills 49, Menifee Paloma Valley 34: The Rattlers improved to 10-0 as three players hit double figures. Sophomores Sophie Wilson and London Waggoner scored 12 and 11, respectively. Freshman Tatiana Santana scored 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Honolulu \u2018Iolani High School\u2019s girls basketball team touched down at LAX on Dec. 23 with two goals: Soak…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":476164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,3102,1370,3549,7264,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-476163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-high-school-sports","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115794822030660864","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}