On a humid Hilo night at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium, a little brother's best chance to knock off its bigger basketball sibling slipped through its figurative grasp.
The visiting Hawaii men’s basketball team survived the slick conditions and the upset bid from the Division II Vulcans with some effective last-minute execution to emerge with a 64-61 win in a rare exhibition meeting on Hawaii Island on Friday night.
Center Tanner Christensen, one of four Division I transfers to join Eran Ganot’s club in the offseason, put in the winning three-point play with 4.6 seconds left off a screen-and-roll play with Tom Beattie, who got the start at point guard.
“We’ve got work to do,” Ganot told ESPN Honolulu’s Josh Pacheco in a postgame radio interview. “I don’t know if you can get a better simulation than that. That’s why we wanted to play Hilo, in Hilo. So you get the road experience, travel. They brought it. They set the tone and we were playing catch-up.”
Christensen, a 6-foot-10 graduate transfer from Utah Tech, had 13 points and 10 rebounds. Gytis Nemeiksa, a forward who transferred from Xavier, scored 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting and the sophomore Beattie had 12 points six assists and five turnovers.
Both teams underwent heavy roster reconstruction in the summer, contributing to an aura of the unknown for the programs’ first meeting on the Big Isle since an official game at Kealakehe High in Kona in 2011. There was no TV or video live stream and the crowd was reportedly around 1,500.
In addition to countless exhibition meetings between the state schools on Oahu, UH has captured all 13 official contests in the series, including one at the Stan Sheriff Center last year. The only one of those to be played within single digits was in December 2018, a seven-point Rainbows win.
But with a favorable backdrop, the Vulcans hit the Rainbows with an audacious early combination of ball pressure, alley-oops and 3-pointers. UHH scored seven of the game’s first eight points and could’ve led at the half, were it not for a 10-2 Manoa run led by Nemeiksa that allowed the visitors to take a 34-31 lead at intermission.
The second half see-sawed several times with neither team able to get separation of more than seven points. The ball was seemingly just as slick as the playing surface and both had to be wiped down frequently.
“Our guys had some slips, their guys had some slips,” Hilo coach Kaniela Aiona told Spectrum News in a phone interview. “I mean, the humidity here was off the charts today, so that can happen.”
UH prevailed despite a whopping 24 turnovers for the game, and 22 free-throw attempts by the Vulcans in the second half. UHH connected on only 12 of those, allowing UH to hang around — including when Nadjrick Peat missed a pair with under a minute left and the Vulcans leading by two. Peat led UHH with 12 points.
“That wasn’t everything, but that certainly would’ve been nice for us,” Aiona said. “We felt like we had a chance to seal it there late, if we hit free throws down the stretch.”
Beattie, of New Zealand, hit two at the line to tie the game at 61. UHH missed on a jumper and UH elected not to call timeout with the shot clock turned off.
“They were calm, they took the play at the right time,” Ganot said. “We were best when we were in middle ball screen with Tom and Tanner; he’s such a good screener. You can simulate all you want; we needed the game.”
After a timeout, UHH tried to set up a fullcourt play for a tying 3-pointer. UH covered it well and a Vulcans halfcourt heave went off the rim.
Aiona joked that UH graduate assistant Zoar Nedd, an ex-Vulcans forward who hit a game-tying 3 against Point Loma last year, was able to alert Ganot and players about what was coming.
“We have a joint (keiki) clinic tomorrow. I’m gonna be sure to bring that up to Zoar,” Aiona said. “I know he blew us up on that last play, that traitor.”
All five of Hilo’s 3-point baskets came in the first half, but it hung around by nabbing 14 steals, including six by Andre Norris.
Beattie was one of three UH reserve returnees to get the starting nod on Friday, along with forwards Akira Jacobs and Harry Rouhliadeff. Houston Christian transfer guard Marcus Greene and Christensen, a transfer from Utah Tech, rounded out the first five.
Nemeiksa and guard Kody Williams played close to starter’s minutes off the bench with 24 and 23. The team’s lone returning starter, wing Ryan Rapp, was not among the 10 to see action.
Ganot said his young group “needed” that kind of test. Its regular-season opener is Nov. 8 against NAIA Life Pacific.
“Sometimes you have to let them fight through it and figure it out,” Ganot said. “During the game, I was like, ‘this is good for us.’ I’m disappointed because I felt like I kept saying it, because (Hilo) kept bringing it.”
He credited his players for a "10 out of 10" peformance in the final 90 seconds.
Aiona, for his part, said he hoped the Rainbow Warriors would return in a series that has been almost exclusively contested on Oahu.
“I think it meant something to our community to have them here,” he said.
UH will play a second Neighbor Island exhibition against Chaminade at Kamehameha-Maui on Nov. 2 in conjunction with the UH women. The Rainbow Wahine first play Hilo in an exhibition at Afook-Chinen at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.