Benxi, China » A near-brawl one day, a hearty meal the next.
The Hawaii men’s basketball team got off to a rocky start with the Shenyang Panpan Dinosaurs of the Chinese Basketball Association on Monday, but all was forgiven by the end of UH’s final night of competition in China on Tuesday.
After a thrilling comeback victory — UH rallied from 18 points down at halftime to win 72-71 in the rematch — players and coaches from both teams bonded over dinner at a restaurant.
UH was awed by its reception, a rock-star-style greeting the moment players stepped off the bus to walk 50 feet into the establishment. Media and VIPs lined up to catch a close glimpse of the rare American visitors.
Leaving the restaurant, the Rainbow Warriors posed for pictures with the same Shenyang players they nearly got into it with after some hard fouls in a tense game atmosphere on Monday.
A Dinosaurs guard was noticeably absent from action in the rematch. The player was held out after being centrally involved in the first game’s altercation — mostly some pushing and shoving.
There were no hard feelings, from the top down. It helped that UH coach Gib Arnold and Shenyang coach Gao Shiqiang have some history. Gao, a former Chinese national team coach, spent some time as an invited guest at USC practices in 2009, when Arnold was an assistant there.
"I watched the USC team on a daily basis for months," Gao said through an interpreter in explanation of their shared time. He smiled.
Arnold explained previously that his relationship with Gao was a driving force behind UH’s invitation to play its tour in China.
The two joked about the previous day’s incident before tipoff, and play was clean throughout the game.
Brereton greets crowd
Junior forward Hauns Brereton put his Mandarin-speaking skills to good use prior to the game against the Dinosaurs.
He took a microphone and greeted the crowd on behalf of his teammates just before tipoff.
"I just said, ‘Hey everybody,’ and they all said ‘Hey’ back. Kind of like aloha to Hawaii," Brereton said. "And I told them that we were grateful that we were able to go out of the country. For a lot of us it was the first time out of the country, and we were grateful that it was able to be China."
The crowd clapped in approval of his greeting.
"It seemed like they appreciated it," Brereton said.
Attendance solid
After experiencing a sold-out, intense atmosphere in a small, hazy gym on Monday, the Rainbows got their largest overall crowd and venue in a new facility on Tuesday.
More than 4,000 people came to the Benxi Gymnasium, a high for the trip.
With game times and locations changing several times leading up to and including gamedays on the trip, word of mouth was apparently the best way to get hoops fans to the games.
"I don’t think they see games like this," said Roy Lu, a Chinese basketball agent. "They get to see Americans. It’s a pretty big deal to these towns."
