UH basketball tries to gobble up Thanksgiving victories in Las Vegas

Junior forward Kamaka Hepa scored 19 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished out four assists in a Thanksgiving Day victory over Illinois-Chicago in Las Vegas. (Photo courtesy Brandon Flores)

Ahh, nothing like Thanksgiving Day: Turkey with gravy and cranberry sauce all ovah. Yams with marshmallows. Honey-glazed ham. Stuffing and mashed potatoes. Pumpkin pie.

Now top all of that off with an 88-80 University of Hawai’i men’s basketball victory over Illinois-Chicago in Las Vegas, and … What could be better?

Well, a next-day win over South Alabama would be a nice hana hou, for sure.

The Rainbow Warriors (3-1) will face the Jaguars (4-2) at 1 p.m. Hawai’i time on Black Friday for the Las Vegas Classic championship at The Orleans Arena. Now before you ask, “South Alabama?” just know that the Jaguars’ two losses were both close ones at Wichita State (64-58) and Alabama (73-68).

So this is a pretty good early season road test for UH, which could use another one before traveling to Santa Clara on Tuesday.

Senior center Mate Colina had game-highs of 23 points and seven rebounds and junior forward Kamaka Hepa added 19 points and six boards on Thursday to help the Rainbow Warriors hold off the Flames, who cut a 17-point deficit to 43-34 at halftime. Hawai’i then did not allow Illinois-Chicago to get closer than six points in the second half.

Senior forward Jerome Desrosiers finished with 16 points and six rebounds, senior point guard JoVon McClanahan added 10 points, six boards and four assists and senior guard Junior Madut contributed 10 points, three rebounds and four assists.

Freshman guard Amoro Lado played 16-plus minutes and provided eight points and two rebounds off the bench.

UH head coach Eran Ganot, who earned his 100th career victory at the school in the process, said earlier in the week that the team’s exact identity is still being defined.

“We’re still searching for it, but we’re closer,” Ganot said. “Three games in four days (at the Outrigger Rainbow Classic) will do that, and adversity will do that, too, if you handle it right. I’ve always said, we’ve got a great group of guys. I feel for them in some situations, with significant numbers down, but they’ve risen to the occasion. Everybody is part of the solution, guys are playing out of position, different positions. We’re looking at different things, different combinations, different styles. I think that will happen as the season goes along.

“The good thing for us is we have (this) tournament, and a big game just three or four days right after that. All this is about preparing us for conference play as we go through this journey.”

As far as a post-Thanksgiving feast hangover, don’t worry about that. The Rainbow Warriors actually celebrated the holiday together earlier in the week, as they do every Christmas when the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic is going on.

“We’re unique, because playing on Christmas Day, playing on Thanksgiving Day is not common for any team, but we’re used to playing on Christmas Day,” Ganot said. “We played on Thanksgiving Day when we were at the Wooden Legacy (Classic) in 2018 against Utah, and now more often than even when I started coaching, teams are playing on New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day. We still try to (celebrate together), because this is a family program, we celebrate the holiday season. We just do it on different days, and do an abbreviated version on that day, because we’ve got game day routines, and things like that.

“We had a Thanksgiving kind of meal, already, we’ll have a Christmas meal together and celebrate that — that date is already planned prior to Christmas so we can focus on the games on those days. We’re somewhat experienced in that.”

The strategy certainly worked on Thursday, and gave them extra time to prepare for South Alabama, which edged San Diego, 68-67, in the earlier game.

And the victory also surely made for more pleasant off-time and team bonding, which was another big goal for this road trip.

“Honestly, I think just traveling as a team will bring us closer together,” said Desrosiers, a transfer from Princeton. “We’ve been together for the past few months, but traveling together and staying at a hotel and going out in Vegas will bring us together and we’ll find that identity even more.”

If that occurs, then the Rainbow Warriors will be hoping that what happened in Vegas will not just stay in Vegas.

Roosevelt-‘Iolani series dates back to 1936

This was the feature photo of The Honolulu Advertiser Sports Section on Oct. 14, 1936, the night ‘Iolani and Roosevelt met for the first time in a varsity sport. The 85-year old series resumes this Friday night. (Photo clipped from Newspapers.com)

When ‘Iolani takes the field at 7 p.m. Friday night at Roosevelt’s iconic Ticky Vasconcellos Stadium for a key Division I interleague football showdown, it will resume a series between the two schools that dates back some 85 years.

The first meeting on Oct. 14, 1936 was also a big deal, even bigger than this week’s meeting between the undefeated Raiders (8-0) and potentially dangerous Rough Riders (1-2).

Despite being a rare Wednesday night game, it drew close to 10,000 fans at the old Honolulu Stadium. That’s almost twice the attendance of the Nov. 6 college football game between Hawai’i and San Diego State two Saturdays ago.

‘Iolani, coached by then-little known Father Kenneth A. Bray, was in its debut season as a varsity program but had already drawn attention by stunning longtime power St. Louis, 12-0, in the opener two weeks prior.

Roosevelt, meanwhile, was 2-0 and had established itself as a contender under its already well known head coach Neal S. Blaisdell, the future Mayor of Honolulu.

Besides being the first-ever varsity meeting between the two schools in any sport, the game also marked two other significant “firsts” for ‘Iolani:

  1. It was the first ‘Iolani football game to be played at night. The season-opening upset against St. Louis happened at Punahou’s Alexander Field, and a 7-0 loss to Kamehameha in the next game was held at the Warriors’ home field near the old King Street campus, across from where Farrington High School now stands.

  2. It was the first ‘Iolani football game played at Honolulu Stadium, where most of its games would be held over the next 38 years.

In fact, it was such a big deal, Father Bray held practice at the Stadium under the lights on the game’s eve in order to acclimate his players to the venue and atmosphere.

Alas, Roosevelt proved to be the better team on game night, prevailing 21-0.

Despite the point differential, Advertiser sports writer Andrew Mitsukado described the game as “the best yet seen this season at the Moiliili gridiron. The fans had hardly settled in their seats when Roosevelt and Iolani took turns in driving down the field with a spectacular burst of brilliant offensive. And all through the game there was a profusion of spine-tickling plays.”

And unlike these days, when some people head for the exits even during a one-possession nail-biter, Mitsukado wrote, “So absorbed in the tussle were the fans in the game that hardly a fan left the scene of the battle until after the final play …”

The Rough Riders came out on top thanks in large part to a stalwart defense and what Mitsukado described as a “triple-barreled running attack featuring (Joseph) Kaulukukui, (Nolle) Smith and (Jim) Olmos.” Kaulukukui threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Smith to help Roosevelt take a 7-0 lead in the second quarter. Both would later go on to star at UH, with Smith setting records and eventually being inducted into the school’s prestigious Circle of Honor. Olmos also lettered for the Rainbows.

‘Iolani hung tough and it remained 7-0 until the third quarter, when Olmos scored on a short TD run to cap a 46-yard drive. The Rough Riders then made it 21-0 in the fourth quarter on a 17-yard pass-and-lateral play, and Kaulukukui later sealed the victory with an interception.

Remember, everyone played both ways back then, and Kaulukukui also served as place kicker and punt returner.

Remember also that Roosevelt belonged to the ILH in those days, and so this 1936 meeting was the first of an annual rivalry that continued until 1970, after which the Rough Riders joined the OIA.

But even after that, ‘Iolani would sometimes play ILH games at Roosevelt, which was used as an alternate site probably on weekends where the OIA had Aloha Stadium reserved on Friday nights and UH had a home game on Saturday.

In any event, Friday night’s “tussle” will add yet another chapter to the 85-year history between these two friendly Honolulu rivals.

UH hoops team hopeful for quick start despite two key early injuries

UH senior wing Samuta Avea was all smiles at the first day of practice, back on Sept. 29 at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. (Photo courtesy Brandon Flores)

Some may say “You can’t miss what you never had,” but the University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team might beg to differ.

Senior wing Samuta Avea and senior guard Juan Munoz never did suit up for the Rainbow Warriors this season, and they each won’t after going through major surgery soon. But head coach Eran Ganot, his staff and the players all know things won’t be the same as expected without the pair of perimeter shooting threats.

“When you hear the news, in the moment, these guys are so close, it’s really tough,” Ganot said on Monday. “You gotta put yourself in the position of the student-athletes, and the guys who really enjoy playing with them.”

Senior center Mate Colina said Avea and Munoz “could be like our brothers,” especially having entered UH as a freshman with Avea four years ago.

“It’s devastating,” Colina said. “But going forward we just hope the rest of our teammates will step up. I’m sure we’ll still feel their presence, they will still be around us, they’ll still be team members, and (will) play an influential role in what we have and what we’re trying to do.”

Junior Madut, a senior wing who will be expected to again fill a void left by Avea, also used the word “devastated.”

“It was definitely disappointing for us as a unit, as a team,” Madut said. “All of us were pretty devastated, we were all excited to play with each other, we’re pretty close. But we’ve all taken a progressive approach, and we’re looking forward to the season. We’re all going to stay positive and stick together and be there for those guys while they’re going through this process.”

The Warriors certainly do not have much time to mope, as they beat UH-Hilo, 97-67, in the season opener on Nov. 10, followed by a game versus Northern Colorado the following night, and then Pacific on Nov. 13 in the Outrigger Rainbow Classic.

Avea, an athletic 6-foot-6 leaper and legitimate 3-point threat, was likely projected to start at the wing position after opting to sit out last season for personal reasons. Munoz, a 6-foot transfer from Longwood, shot 38.4 percent from beyond the arc in three seasons there and was named to the All-Big South Conference second team.

Ganot said it won’t take one or two players to fill the void; it will take all of them.

“When you lose a guy or two, it’s not a direct replacement, because everybody is different,” said Ganot, who is entering his seventh season at the helm. “So it’s ‘next man, every man,’ it’s going to be collective. We’ll be a little different in some ways.”

A turnstile count of 297 fans last week got to see a glimpse of what the Rainbow Warriors will look like at UH’s 72-60 exhibition victory over Chaminade on Nov. 1. Avea and Munoz watched that game from the bench in street clothes.

Colina, a 7-foot post, scored 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and Madut added 16 points and four assists.

Bernardo da Silva, a 6-9 sophomore post, contributed 11 points off the bench.

The victory was by no means easy, as the Silverswords led 54-53 until 5:35 remaining in the game before Colina and Madut helped UH close it out with a final 19-6 run.

In particular, the Rainbow Warriors struggled with defensive rebounding in the second half, allowing Chaminade to snag 11 boards off the offensive glass. Hawai’i also was a bit stagnant against a 1-3-1 halfcourt zone defense after halftime, before finally re-establishing an effective open-court transition game in the closing minutes.

And the Rainbow Warriors did not shoot very well from the free throw line, sinking just 12 of 22 attempts, including only 3 of 8 in the first half.

“It’s unique, early in the year you prepare as much as you can, and then you see some things you hadn’t seen,” Ganot said. “In the moment, it hurt us, but in the long term, it helps us. That’s really what the scrimmages and exhibitions are for, not just different styles, but different actions, different coverages. I think we watched it (on film), and I think we’re better for it. We didn’t rebound to the ability we’d like, we were inconsistent at times, we didn’t come out of the gates well in the second half.

“Things we’re doing well, we gotta continue to do well, and things we need to clean up, certainly were focus areas for us.”

Colina said it was all correctable, and the Rainbow Warriors ironed most of it out in the practices afterward.

“I think it’s just like sharpening up the game altogether, very miniscule things that we needed to fix and I think we’re definitely on top of it now. I think the biggest thing was being able to push out a lead once we had it, and now we can show that we worked on it and got better at it.”

Madut said the Silverswords presented a unique challenge that kept UH on its toes throughout the game.

“Firstly, credit to Chaminade, because they did a good job of throwing a lot of different stuff and things that we hadn’t seen yet, and we had to adjust in the moment,” Madut said. “We all watched the film, and there’s a lot of things we can fix. It’s very early for us right now, so we’re still kind of learning each other and learning our roles, and the offense and stuff like that. So I just think we need to keep hammering and keep working every single day and just trust the process, and it will work out, for sure.”