The opening day of the HHSAA Division II girls basketball tournament didn’t go smoothly for BIIF teams.
Ka’u lost its state tourney debut Wednesday night at Kalani High’s gym in Honolulu, and Kamehameha lost a chance to defend its championship.
The BIIF runner-up Trojans shrugged off a slow start but never could find their shot as University surged in the second half, racing to the quarterfinal with a 54-40 victory.
Reishalyn Jara led Ka’u (5-8) with a game-high 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting and grabbed six rebounds, while freshman Heidi Vidal added 12 points and nine rebounds, but the Trojans were undone by 29 turnovers.
Ka’u shot just 25 percent.
Tyra Goo Sun led the way for the Junior Bows (10-4) – who broke away from a 22-22 halftime tie – with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
In consolation play Thursday, Ka’u will take on Kamehameha, which fell 44-28 to Hanalani.
Mihalani Mortensen tallied eight points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Warriors (6-6), who shot 22.4 percent and turned the ball over 25 times.
Keila Tsutsui’s 14 points and six boards paced the Royals (12-2), who held a significant advantage at the free throw line and outpointed the Warriors 21-11 in the second quarter to lead 28-18 at the break, and they handcuffed Kamehameha in the second half.
Finishing 14 of 28 on free throws, University took three times as many trips to the line as the Warriors, who were 3 of 9.