Kanekoa scored 19 points and had five assists as Honoka'a beat No. 4 seed Lahainaluna, 53-43, yesterday in a quarterfinal game at the Stan Sheriff Center.

"We still haven't seen her play her best basketball yet," Honma said. "She's growing and she's coming into her own right now. I think we'll get a lot more exciting things out of her."

In a 42-39 first-round victory over Kaiser on Tuesday, Kanekoa hit the go-ahead free throw with 7.9 seconds left and finished with 13 points, nine rebounds and four assists.

Honoka'a, the Big Island Interscholastic Federation runner-up, will play No. 1 seed Punahou in the semifinals tonight at 8. The last time Honoka'a (13-2) advanced to the semifinals was in 2001.

"It's an exciting thing for this team," Honma said. "We haven't been there in a while and it's the first time for this group of kids."

Lahainaluna, the Maui Interscholastic League champion, led 4-0 midway through the first quarter, but Kaneoka sparked a 25-3 run to close the half.

She scored 13 points before intermission, including the first eight of the surge. Kari Heers scored the final eight.

The Lunas' final points of the half came with 2:10 left in the first quarter. They missed 12 field-goal attempts, including eight 3-pointers, in the second quarter.

"Our girls, it had nothing to do with what Honoka'a had, it was us," Lahainaluna coach Todd Rickard said. "We weren't attacking the basket, we weren't taking smart shots, we were making bad decisions. Other than that we played a good game, but in the second quarter our girls just took a break and it cost us the game."

Lahainaluna (8-1) got within 42-37 with 3:29 left in the game after a 3-pointer by Tasha Pagdilao from the left baseline, but the Lunas couldn't get closer.

Lahainaluna, which was 1 of 13 on 3-point attempts in the first three quarters, was 4 of 8 in the fourth quarter.

"We told our kids do not allow them to get going," Honma said. "We asked them to not let them have the 3's and we relaxed a little bit thinking we have a lead and let them get shots we shouldn't have allowed them to have."

Heers finished with 14 points for Honoka'a, which shot 16 of 29 from the field and held a 31-19 rebounding advantage.

Rickard said Lahainaluna's cold-shooting first half (2 of 20) surprised him.

"Like how we did in the third and fourth quarters, I've seen my team play like that for four quarters," he said. "We just didn't play tonight. If they did it would have been a different game."