Highlights from the Green & White Scrimmage
Numbers were low but the effort was high at the University of Hawai’i basketball team’s Green & White Scrimmage on Saturday afternoon at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Only 10 healthy players were cleared to participate in the scrimmage, meaning it was a five-on-five session with zero substitutions available for either squad.
“Good moments, some things to build off of, individually and collectively,” head coach Eran Ganot said. “And then a lot to clean up … I know we played 10, but they got plenty of timeouts and I wanted to see who could play through minutes.”
The scrimmage featured three separate periods. The first two were 10 minutes, and the third was five minutes. Rosters were adjusted after each period to test various player combinations.
Junior forward Samuta Avea led all players with 19 points and eight rebounds, Senior point guard Drew Buggs had 12 points and 10 assists, and also was on the winning squad for each period. Sophomore center Dawson Carper scored 17 points on 8-for-10 shooting. Senior forward Zigmars Raimo added 10 points and six rebounds, and was also on the winning side for all three periods.
“It was exciting to get to play in front of people for the first time (this season),” Avea said. “It got out of sorts at times, on offense and defense. I’m happy that we know exactly what we need to improve on.”
Buggs set the tone early, tallying four points and five assists in the first period. With the score tied at 18 in the closing seconds, he drove strong to the basket, got fouled, then converted the two winning free throws with 1.6 seconds remaining.
“I want to do whatever’s best for the team,” Buggs said. “Coach drew up a play for me to go downhill. They trust me in my playmaking and I think I had the best shot in that situation, so I attacked the rim and got to the line.”
As for the lack of substitutions, Buggs said it was a good test of character, and perhaps a preview of things to come for him this season.
“I don’t want to come out – I enjoy playing,” he said. “For other guys, we talked about it. It’s just mental, you shouldn’t want a sub. Everybody should want to be out here on the court, everybody should want to compete. There’s no excuses. That’s our motto this year, no excuses.”
Ganot added: “One of our keys to this season will be our ability to focus for longer stretches and execute better and have more of our returners, outside of Drew and Zigmars raise the bar for our younger guys.”
The lack of depth allowed some of those “younger guys” to prove their worth. In particular, freshman Zoar Nedd contributed 10 points and eight rebounds while having to fill in at the power forward position. The 6-foot-5 forward out of Kapolei High School redshirted last season.
“You want that,” Ganot said. “What we’re going through right now is normal. We’ll go through it again during this long grind of a season, the journey. You want to see who steps up to the plate. You have to be ready when the opportunity arises.”
All 10 players who saw action scored. The players who were not cleared to participate were guards Ahmed Ali and Kameron Ng, and forwards Bernardo da Silva, Owen Hulland and Garrett Cason.
The Warriors will play an exhibition game against Chaminade on October 30. The regular-season opener is set for November 8 against Florida A&M.
Key Statistics
Drew Buggs – 12 points, 11 assists, 4 assists
Justin Webster – 5 points, 3 assists, 1 rebound
Eddie Stansberry – 6 points, 1 rebound, 0 assists, 2-4 3-pointers
Jessiya Villa – 5 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists
Mate Colina – 6 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist
Zigmars Raimo – 10 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists
Zoar Nedd – 10 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist
Samuta Avea – 19 points, 8 rebounds, 0 assists
Justin Hemsley – 5 points, 2 rebounds, 0 assists
Dawson Carper – 17 points, 5 rebounds, 0 assists
Photos courtesy Brandon Flores / www.brandonfloresphotography.com
Good highlights, see Raimo and Carper made some jumpers.