For 20 long minutes, ‘Iolani wobbled and Radford throttled.

In the end, defending state champion ‘Iolani showed a new look and turned an early seven-point deficit into a 57-30 runaway win over Radford at James Alegre Gymnasium.

Haylie-Anne Ohta led the way, scoring 11 of her 17 points after halftime for the Raiders. Callie Pieper scored seven points off the bench for ‘Iolani, now 4-0 in nonconference play.

“I think we came out a little flat in the first half, but then we got ourselves together by the second half. We said we wanted it,” Pieper said.

Mailana Mattos led Radford (1-1) with 12 points. Freshman Kasey McKinney hustled for nine points and Jirah Villanueva tallied seven.

“We didn’t know what to expect. You’re playing the state champions. I just said, we’ve got nothing to lose, we’ve got a chance to play the champs,” Radford coach Charles Chong said. “It’s going to show us who we are. I’m more interested in keeping our energy and attitude in the right places, and we have a game plan and we do the best we can. We had mental mistakes, little things that added up and you cannot do that against ‘Iolani. They’ll make you pay right away.”

‘Iolani did not score a point for nearly 4 minutes as Radford opened an 8-1 lead in the first quarter. The Raiders tied the game twice, at 8-all and 12-all, but never led during the first half. A 3-point bank shot by Pieper in the final seconds of the first half tied the game at 18.

The Rams and Raiders locked horns and were at 23-all in the third stanza when ‘Iolani went on a 6-0 run. Fullcourt man-to-man pressure wore down Radford.

“I think we got up and down the court a lot more. That helped get our rhythm going,” Paige Oh said.

After Ohta splashed a 3 from the right wing and Oh scored on a layup off a Radford turnover, the visitors opened the lead to eight points. A layup by Abby Tanaka opened the Raiders’ lead to 38-28 to close the third quarter.

From there, ‘Iolani’s defense dominated as Mele Sake and Pieper controlled the paint.

“I knew we could wear them down if we get the tempo going a little more,” ‘Iolani coach Dean Young said. “This is the first time we’ve pressed so we really wanted to see what it looks like, but for the first almost 5 minutes of the game, if you don’t score, you can’t press. In the first half, we settled for runners. We weren’t getting to the rim. We weren’t getting to the free-throw line. We missed a bunch of layups and threes, but you’ve got to help yourself out and get better shots.”

Just a couple of weeks ago, Pieper was playing volleyball for ‘Iolani’s state-championship team.

“I like basketball season. It’s a lot of conditioning and very fast, a fast pace,” Pieper said.

Radford hosts Punahou on Friday, and will play in Kamehameha’s IMUA tournament, followed by Moanalua’s tournament.

“I thought the girls did really well. I said ‘Iolani’s going to teach us things. It’ll be our mirror and we’ll learn from them. They’ll reveal our weaknesses,” Chong said.

McKinney, a freshman, was dominant at times in the paint.

“Her upside is through the roof,” Chong said. “There’s so much potential, absolutely.”