Defense-driven Drammeh comes up big for Rainbows

When it was his turn, Sheriff Drammeh was ready to take charge. Make that take charges.

At times Saturday, he played like he was the one the Stan Sheriff Center was named after, playing 21 pressure-packed minutes in Hawaii’s 65-57 win over UC Santa Barbara.

This was one of those games where wide-eyed freshmen belong on the bench, a physical battle between conference contenders. This wasn’t an exhibition against Chaminade, the only game when Drammeh played more, barely, with 22 minutes.

But when leading scorer Aaron Valdes went down early in the game with a toe injury, coach Eran Ganot knew he’d need to dip deeper into the bench than the usual eight-man rotation. That meant Drammeh, who came in averaging 5.1 minutes in 12 games, mostly mop-up duty.

Most of Drammeh’s contributions didn’t show up on the stat sheet. And he wasn’t exactly great at scoring the ball (other than a key 15-footer in the first half).

He played the final 13:44 of the game, with the outcome in doubt until the final few seconds. Drammeh was on the court during crunch time instead of seniors Quincy Smith and Sai Tummala.

The reason?

Defense.

“His ability to take charges,” coach Ganot said. “There was a confidence about him. Still, for the whole game we were thinking of other options.”

He took two charges and forced another UCSB turnover on a kicked ball. He consistently beat the Gauchos to the baseline, or any other place they were trying to get to.

“I just like playing defense, and that’s the key for me to get more minutes.,” Drammeh said. “We’ve got plenty of other guys to do the scoring.”

Drammeh’s defense made his offensive impact seem bigger, at least to UCSB coach Bob Williams.

“They lost (Valdes), but they had a kid, No. 22, come off the bench and hit a couple of shots,” Williams said.

Well, actually Drammeh did make a “couple of shots.” In addition to the first-half jumper he made a free throw to double UH’s lead to 56-54 with 4:49 left. But he missed three others from the stripe. Those included a pair after his rebound of his own missed 3-pointer with 1:33 left and Hawaii still leading by just two.

“He’d want some things back,” Ganot said. “But he was not afraid, and there’s something to be said for that.”

Drammeh is from Stockholm, Sweden, that famous hotbed of basketball recruiting.

“Our staff has a lot of contacts in Europe,” Ganot said. “Coach (John) Montgomery got a tip. Coach (Adam) Jacobsen knew some people there and followed up and here he is.”

Drammeh was born and raised in Sweden. His parents are from Gambia. His father was a soccer player and his mom was a sprinter.

“Basketball’s a lot different in Sweden,” he said.

But winning with passion and defense is appreciated by coaches everywhere.

“To put it lightly he’s pretty slight,” Ganot said. “But not shy about throwing his body around. … He’s got all the intangibles.”

Ganot noted that the 6-foot-3 Drammeh has put on 5 pounds since arriving in Hawaii a few months ago, and is up to a beefy 155.

“His body language was superb today,” the coach said. “His body is coming along.”

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads