Former UH stars return for competitive alumni game

HONOLULU – What’s old is new.

At least it was on Wednesday night as various Hawaii basketball alumni took to the Stan Sheriff Center floor once again, seeing 12 former Rainbow Warrior standouts split into two teams to compete in a semi-impromptu alumni game with media, game officials and uniforms all prepared for a fun mid-July night.

The UH alumni donned the program’s new Nike threads while the current Rainbow Warriors mingled on the bench with them, watching as Team Green came back to defeat Team White, 88-85. Juan Munoz, who is the program’s new director of player development, led all scorers with 25 points while knocking down seven 3-pointers for Team Green.

Bernardo da Silva chipped in 20 points for the squad in green, tallying 14 of them after halftime. The game, which came together late with a group of men’s basketball alumni on the island training during the summer months sparking the idea, completed a few days of eras coming together.

“This is just a really incredible couple of days,” head coach Eran Ganot said following Wednesday’s game. “We had a great dinner last night … we wanted our guys to be able to wear [the Hawaii uniform] again.”

Ganot called the experience “a little surreal” with so many different eras of faces together and added the desire to build off of it and grow into a bigger event. Samuta Avea, who did not play in the game as he erred on the side of caution with an injury history and professional season to be ready for around the corner, agreed with Ganot on hoping to make the game happen more in the future with a bigger plan and expressed gratitude for the chance to see so many friendly faces together.

Kamaka Hepa, who had 15 points for the victorious Team Green, called the night “a blast” and compared the joy of playing in the game to the level he felt growing up and falling in the love with the sport as a kid. The 6-foot-10 forward, who spent last season playing professionally in Germany, made sure to mention his hopes that future years will involve the fans even more.

“Hopefully we can build on it and make it bigger and bigger,” Hepa said about future alumni games. “Maybe [we can] get some more fans out here for next year and make it happen and make the most of it and do something for the community, that’s what’s really important.”

While he was very busy enjoying playing with old teammates and different alumni, Hepa also thought about ways to add to the game in the future. He tossed out ideas that resembled a type of “UH athletics block party” with fans invited to enjoy different vendors and mingle with alumni and current players before watching an alumni game at 6 p.m. inside the Stan Sheriff Center.

“Something like that where we can really get the community out here, let them have some fun in the sun, enjoy the nice weather, get some food outside and then we come in for a game [that night],” said Hepa. “[Fans] could watch some of their old favorite players play a friendly game. That’s how I see it progressing, hopefully we can get there. Obviously, there are a lot of things that have to go right but if anybody can do it, it’s going to be this program and the coaches here and the support staff that we have here.”

FINAL STATS:

GREEN – 88

• Juan Munoz (’24) – 25 points, 7 made 3PT
• Bernardo da Silva (’24) – 20 points
• Negus Webster-Chan (’15) – 16 points, 3 made 3PT
• Kamaka Hepa (’23) – 15 points, 1 made 3PT
• Mike Thomas (’18) – 9 points, 1 made 3PT
• Zoar Nedd (’23) – 3 points, 1 made 3PT

WHITE – 85

• Eddie Stansberry (’20) – 17 points, 3 made 3PT
• Gibson Johnson (’18) – 17 points, 2 made 3PT
• Noah Allen (’17) – 16 points, 3 made 3PT
• Tanner Christensen (’25) – 14 points
• Jerome Derosiers (’22) – 13 points, 3 made 3PT
• Brock Stepteau (’19) – 8 points