Iolani Alumni

The Iolani Girls Basketball team advanced to the semifinals of the 2007 Hawaii Girls Basketball State Tournament with a 50-39 win over the Radford Rams on Wednesday night.

The Raiders jumped out to an early lead hitting 5 of 10 3-pointers in the first two quarters to go into halftime with a 31-13 lead. Chanel Hirata hit 3 three-pointers in the first half and, along with forward Alana Matayoshi, finished with a team-high 10 points. The Rams were led by 6-0 freshman center Ta Nitra Byrd who scored 22 points and grabbed 21 rebounds in the loss.

Plagued by foul trouble in the first half, Jamie Smith, Iolani’s leading scorer, finished the game with 8 points and 9 rebounds, well below her double-double average of nearly 16 points and 11 rebounds per game.

Iolani will face the #2-seed and #1-ranked Konawaena Wildcats in the semifinals tonight at 6:00pm at the Stan Sheriff Center. The game will be televised live on OC16.

Other notes: If you were in the arena or listening closesly while watching the game on TV, you have have noticed a familiar voice coming over the loudspeaker. Former Iolani sharpshooter, Ryan Hirata ‘04 was the voice behind the microphone announcing all the in-game action.

Also in attendance last night was Kyle Pape ‘05, back from second season at the Colorado School of Mines. While Kyle was caught on camera, Washington State star Derrick Low ‘04 didn’t make it on screen, but that may be because you’ll see him halftime of tonight’s game being interviewed by the OC16 crew.