Kailua boys basketball coach Tim Harrison discovered a couple of pleasant surprises last night in an 88-59 victory over Kalani.

First, his team showed it could succeed playing an up-tempo style.

Second, 6-foot-5 senior center Nathan Botts, normally a defensive stopper, turned in a solid performance on the offensive end.

Zack Akamine scored 10 of his 19 points in the first quarter, and Botts added 16 and dominated inside as Kailua (3-4) overwhelmed Kalani in an O'ahu Interscholastic Association Eastern Division game.

Kalani (0-6) went primarily with a full-court trapping defense, which the Surfriders repeatedly broke for layups.

"We're getting better at handling pressure," Harrison said. "That's the difference between my team today and two, three weeks ago. They did a better job of recognizing down the court."

Kailua, which entered last night averaging 41.4 points per game, prefers the half-court game, according to Harrison.

"We've never played this kind of game before, this up-and-down style," he said. "We play grind-it-out with most of the teams we play. And a lot of the teams have dominated us ... the better teams."

Added Botts: "We usually have games scoring 40 or 50 and not 80 or 90."

Kailua led 52-44 with 5:24 left in the third quarter, then switched to a 2-3 zone and outscored Kalani 16-6 to take a comfortable 18-point lead into the fourth.

Botts came off the bench with 2:14 left in the third and scored the Surfriders' final six points. He scored 14 points in the second half.

"I like defense more, so usually I do better on defense," he said. "Tonight it was going in so I kept shooting."

Botts had five blocks in the second quarter and six rebounds in the fourth.

"He has long arms," Harrison said. "That's what he does for us. He's not a scorer, but he scored a lot tonight on easy buckets. He's generally our shot blocker in the middle of the zone."

Dustin Naki and Ryan Naluai scored 12 points each for Kailua, and Tim Maghinay added 11.

Kailua made 15 of 32 shots in the second half, when it outscored Kalani, 40-22.

Kalani's Jonah Letoto scored 22 points, including four 3-pointers, but only three points came in the fourth quarter when the Falcons made only 3 of 17 shots.

Eben Napoleon contributed 11 points for Kalani.

Kalani coach Richard Miyasaka said the undersized Falcons have to play an all-or-nothing style because they can't match up with other teams.

"We want to up-tempo the game and force turnovers," Miyasaka said. "We don't want to play a half-court game with anybody because of our size. So that's why we try to push it up to full court. Normally, when we play a bigger team (straight up) they just back us down and score really easy."

KAILUA (3-4) 25 23 20 20—88

KALANI (0-6) 21 16 13 9—59

KAILUA—Gerald Ho 0, Ryan Rexroat 1, Tim Maghinay 11, Zack Akamine 19, Darren Sugimoto 0, Sammy Trueman 3, Dustin Naki 12, Makana Atisanoe 8, Billy Oden 6, Nathan Botts 16, Ryan Naluai 12. Totals 34 19-36 88.

KALANI—Reed Cressman 3, Anthony Asuncion 0, Brandon Liao 0, Jeff Khautakoun 7, Jonah Letoto 22, Ian Garrod 0, Max Fujio 1, Holu Ka'aihue 5, Josh Markwith 7, Daniel Morisato 0, Chris Piper 3, Brandon Cabacungan 0, Eben Napoleon 11. Totals 20 12-25 59. 3-point goals—Kailua 1 (Naki 1). Kalani 7 (Letoto 4, Napoleon 1, Cressman 1, Khautakoun 1). JV—Kailua 83, Kalani 35

Reported by Alara Lum

KALAHEO-MOANALUA POSTPONED

The OIA East varsity game between the Mustangs (3-1) and Na Menehune (6-0) was postponed because one of the baskets at Moanalua's gym couldn't be lowered from the ceiling.

A junior varsity game was scheduled for 5 p.m. and the varsity game was to follow. A school official said the games were called off at about 4:30 p.m. after maintenance crews couldn't fix the problem.

Playing the game at Kalaheo was considered, but it was too late for the game officials.

No makeup date has been set.

KAHUKU 54, CASTLE 41

Okesene Ale scored 28 points and the host Red Raiders remained unbeaten at 6-0 in the OIA Eastern Division with a victory over the Knights.

Scott Keiter-Charles led the Knights with 10 points.

CASTLE (2-3) 9 9 11 12—41

KAHUKU (6-0) 13 20 12 9—54

CASTLE—Eric Tom 0, Matt Kodama 0, Lihikai Domingo 6, Tyler Kanemori 1, Scott Keiter-Charles 10, Micah Calore 0, Keanu Bruhn-Nakilei 5, Bryce Kalauoka'aea 6, Barron Meyer 6, Alika Kalopodes 4, Kyle Kia 3. Totals 15 8-12 41.

KAHUKU—Pele Soliai 3, Kaulin Krebs 0, Iona Teriipaia 0, Devin Unga 3, Shiloah Te'o 2, Okesene Ale 28, Ian Fujinaga 0, Tiave Oto 0, Kevin Unga 8, Manti Te'o 2, Kameron Krebs 0, Jacob Kahawaii 7, Anthony Siilata 1, Charles Bell 0. Totals 18 14-24 54. 3-point goals—Castle 3 (Myers 2, Kalauoka'aea 1). Kahuku 4 (Ale 3, Soliai 1). JV—Kahuku 42, Castle 33

Reported by Jeri Tugman

ROOSEVELT 76, THOMPSON 43

Kaipo Spencer scored 12 of his 14 points in the first half when the host Rough Riders raced to a 48-18 lead at intermission and never looked back.

Jayson Tasaka added 12 points, and Darren Erickson and Jeremy Harvest each had 11 for Roosevelt. John Keen led Thompson with 18 points.

THOMPSON (0-6) 10 8 15 10—43

ROOSEVELT (4-2) 19 29 14 14—76

THOMPSON—Brandon Pai 3, Keo Evans-Gonda 5, Jordan Eror 0, DJ Farias 9, John Keen 18, Taylor Bramwell 6, John Brookes 2. Totals 16 6-16 43.

ROOSEVELT—Kila Delovio 7, Robbie Fukuhara 2, Jayson Tasaka 12, Daniel Arruda 5, Darren Erickson 11, Kersten Ho 2, Jeremy Harvest 11, Keo Keola 9, Kaipo Spencer 14, Troy Quon 3. Totals 34 7-16 76. 3-point goals—Thompson 5 (Farias 3, Keen 1, Pai 1). Roosevelt 1 (Arruda 1). JV—Roosevelt 80, Thompson 13

Reported by John Chung

FARRINGTON 35, KAISER 31

Nathan Serdenia scored 18 points, Elijah Lesu 10 and the visiting Governors beat the Cougars for their first league win of the season.

Andrew Wingert scored 15 points to lead Kaiser.

FARRINGTON (1-6) 7 11 2 15—35

KAISER (1-6) 13 4 3 11—31

FARRINGTON—Nathan Serdenia 18, Elijah Filifili 3, Elijah Lesu 10, Winston Matas 0, Randy McKee 0, Jeff Valoria 0, Michah Kalingo 2, Cody Hua 0, Glenn Ernest 2. Totals 8 17-23 35.

KAISER—Scott Uehara 5, Kalani Calizar 0, Kenneth Kamauoha 2, Timothy Phillips 0, Andrew Wingert 15, Andy Uehara 0, Adam Aila 6, Dustin Chang 0, Noel Okuma 1, Rayce Chun-Ming 2. Totals 11 7-12 31. 3-point goals—Farrington 2 (Serdenia, Filifili). Kaiser 2 (Wingert, Aila). JV—Farrington 52, Kaiser 29

SOCCER

O'AHU INTERSCHOLASTIC ASSOCIATION

YESTERDAY

BOYS

EASTERN DIVISION

Castle 2, Kaimuki 1. Goals-Cast: Blayne Muraoka, Chris Durlacher. Kaim: Robert Clarke.

Kalani 2, Kahuku 0. Goals-Kalan: Young Kwon Hirata, Carter Kam.

Kailua 0, McKinley 0

End of regular season

Reach Kyle Sakamoto at ksakamoto@honoluluadvertiser.com.