Kalani pulls away from Radford in opening round of playoffs, 44-40

With heavy hearts, Kalani is moving on in the OIA Division I girls basketball playoffs.

The Falcons edged visiting Radford in a back-and-forth affair for a 44-40 opening round win Friday night at Earl C. Homer Gymnasium.

It was an emotional victory for Kalani — not only in the sense that the loser’s season would be over — but because of the passing of Alvin Stephenson, the father of junior forward Alina Stephenson and freshman forward Angel Stephenson.

Alvin Stephenson was a former Hawai’i Pacific University guard that also coached high school boys basketball in Damien, leading the Monarchs to a Division II state championship in 2019.

Alina Stephenson scored a team-high 16 points before fouling out in the fourth quarter while Angel Stephenson poured in a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds with four assists and two steals.

The younger Stephenson made plays late in the game to help power Kalani to the win and earned HSRN’s ‘VIP of the Game’ award, which is presented by Fun Factory Games.

She had a solo one-on-four fast break opportunity to give the Falcons the lead for good, 35-33 and later passed out of a double team to a wide-open Raine Chinen in the corner for a triple to give Kalani a 38-33 lead. Her last clutch play came on a missed Kalani free throw with 10 seconds remaining to help ice the game.

“When my sister fouled out, that really pushed me, and my dad, he was supposed to come to this game but he passed away yesterday so I just wanted to dedicate this game to him,” said Angel Stephenson.

The Rams (12-8 overall, 5-5 OIA) were led by Shanntay Stroman in their season-ending loss as she scored a game-high 22 points with 11 rebounds, three steals and two made 3-pointers.

Kalani (15-5, 8-3) moves on to take on the West’s top seed in Mililani Saturday night.