Iolani Alumni

Willamette freshman Taylor Mounts ‘08 scored a game-high 22 points and grabbed 9 rebounds in a 106-74 rout of the Alumni on Saturday evening at the Cone Field House.

The 6-6 forward connected on 9 of 16 shots (including 1-4 from three) and was a perfect 3-3 from the line. He also added one block, one assist and one steal in his 23 minutes of play.

Mounts and the Bearcats will open their season on Friday, November 21st at the Duane Wolfe Golden Rule Shootout in Caldwell, Idaho against the College of Idaho.

Willamette University is located in Salem, Oregon and is a member of the Northwest Conference (NCAA Division III).

[Photo: Midweek]

In her first official game as a member of the UNLV Women’s Basketball team, freshman Jamie Smith ‘08 poured in 14 points and grabbed 9 rebounds for the Lady Rebels in a 92-71 win over Sacramento State. The 6-0 guard/forward shot 5-9 from the field, including 3-5 from three-point range, while also contributing one assist, two blocks and three steals.

On November 8th, Smith scored 6 points and recorded 9 rebounds in a 62-55 exhibition win over Cal State San Bernadino.

UNLV (1-0), picked to finish 7th (of 9 teams) in the MWC pre-season poll, will play their next game tomorrow afternoon at home against Southern Utah.

University of Utah junior point guard Hennasea Tokumura ‘06 suffered a knee injury and will likely miss the rest of this season. The Utes are the preseason favorite to win the Mountain West.

From the Sydney Spirit Website:
Wassup everyone. I’m Derrick Low. For any of you who haven’t gone to a game yet, I’m the one on the court with really long hair. Let me start off by telling you all a little about my self. Where should I start? Well, I’m born and raised in Hawaii, Honolulu to be specific. I went to Washington State University for 4 years, before coming here to join the Spirit. I have 2 traditional Hawaiian tattoos that have significant meaning to my family and me. I am kind of a neat freak…borderline OCD. I like things that smell good. I love the beach. My ancestors can be traced back to the ancient shark god, Kamohoali’i, which does NOT mean I have immunity when a great white shark decides to attack me here in Australia, LIAM!!!!!!!!!! Ha-ha. Besides playing basketball, I would say my next favorite thing to do is sleep.

So far my stay here in Australia has been great. I really enjoy it out here. One of the main reasons why I came here in the first place was because there were similarities between here and Hawaii. I thought…Australia has nice weather, nice beaches, great basketball, and most important, they speak English. So far, I feel like I made a great decision to come here and be apart of the Spirit as well as experience Australia.

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Former University of Hawaii standout Bobby Nash ‘03 led his team to their first two wins in franchise history this past weekend in Fukuoka.

On Saturday evening Nash scored a team-high 27 points and grabbed 8 rebounds in a 84-78 win over the Fukuoka Rizing. He returned the next night to score a game-high 23 points (6 rebounds) to help the Lakestars again hold off the Rizing for a 70-64 victory.

The Shiga Lakestars are now 2-4 on the season and will return home for two games against the Oita Heatdevils on Saturday and Sunday.

Follow Nash on his player blog for the Lakestars. View it here »

The University of Utah women’s basketball team was picked as the preseason favorite to win the Mountain West Conference in the upcoming season. Last year, the Utes went undefeated in the Mountain West at 16-0 and received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

This season, Utah returns Preaseason Player of the Year Morgan Warburton and all-conference selection Kalee Whipple to an already experienced team. Junior guard Hennasea Tokumura ‘06 will also be back this season and looking to make a larger contribution after serving as a backup in 2007-08 behind MWC Player-of-the-Year Leilani Mitchell (who was later selected in the WNBA draft).

Note: Tokumura won the Mountain West Conference Scholar-Athlete Award last season after earning a team-best 3.59 cumulative grade-point average.

Colorado School of Mines guard Kyle Pape ‘05 gained some national attention when the Sporting News published stats from the 2007-08 season in the recent edition of their annual College Basketball Yearbook.

Pape, a pre-season all-conference first team selection this season, is listed in a tie for 9th in scoring (nationally) with a per game average of 20.7 points and is 7th overall in free-throw percentage at 89.1%.

The Colorado School of Mines is located in Golden, Colorado and competes in NCAA Division II.

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Former Washington State standout Derrick Low ‘04 scored a game-high 32 points in a 106-101 loss to the South Dragons last Friday. The 6-2 guard connected on 10 of 22 shots from the field including 7 of 15 from three point range.

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Sydney guard Derrick Low ‘04 helped his team to back-to-back wins last weekend with an 8 point, 7 assist performance on Friday against the Gold Coast Blaze and a 25 point, 3 assist performance on Saturday against the Perth Wildcats. In each of their wins, the Spirit trailed going into the 4th quarter before mounting late comebacks to pull out the victories.

Sydney has now won four straight, including three in NBL play, and are currently in sixth place at 3-3. On the season Low is averaging 18.3 points per game and 3.8 assists with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.3:1.

In his first game as a professional, Bobby Nash ‘03, a swingman for the Shiga Lakestars of the Basketball Japan League, scored 16 points, including 14 in the first half, in a 81-78 loss to to the Osaka Evessa. The following night, he scored 11 points and grabbed 7 rebounds as the Lakestars again fell to the Evessa, 89-73.

Shiga is currently 0-2 and will travel to Takamatsu to play two games against the Five Arrows next Saturday and Sunday, October 25 and 26th.

After an 0-3 start, the Sydney Spirit finally broke into the win column with a 112-105 win over the Adelaide 36ers on the road in Canberra.

Rookie guard Derrick Low ‘04 led the way for Sydney with 26 points and 7 assists, including 12 points in the final quarter to help secure the win. Through four games, he leads the Spirit in scoring at 19.3 points per game - 5th best in the league.

Following the win, the Spirit traveled to Singapore to face the hometown Slingers, a former NBL club, in the 4-team Singapore Challenge Series. Behind 19 points, 2 assists and 4 steals from Low, the Spirit held on for a 90-81 win.

Video Highlights of Derrick Low: Sydney Spirit vs. Singapore Slingers

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Colorado School of Mines’ guard Kyle Pape ‘05 has been named to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) 2008-09 Preseason All-East Division Team.

Pape, a 6-2, 190-lb. senior, was the only player to start all 29 games last season for CSM. He was a unanimous First Team All-RMAC East Division selection last season after finishing second in the league in scoring 20.9 points per game third in free throw percentage (.891).

Pape scored 20-or-more points on 21 occasions and reached double figures in 27 of 29 games. As a sophomore, he was a Second Team All-RMAC East Division selection as the second-leading scorer for the Orediggers (13.7 ppg). He also led the team in field goals made (125), three-point field goals made (62), free throw percentage (.776), points (371), assists (82) and steals (26).

In his first year at Mines (2005-06), Pape earned RMAC Freshman of the Year and Division II Bulletin All-Freshman Team honors while leading CSM in scoring at 14.2 ppg

Much like his first days wearing a Cougar uniform four years ago on the Pullman campus, Derrick Low ‘04, a rookie guard with the Sydney Spirit, is learning (the hard way) that young teams often need to struggle before they can succeed.

Through three games in the NBL regular season, the Spirit have yet to break into the win column falling 112-102 to Melbourne, 111-99 to Wollongong and 99-89 to Adelaide.

Low is averaging 17 points, 2 assists, 1.3 rebounds and 1 steal per game in 36+ minutes of play, but has struggled somewhat percentage-wise shooting just 35.1% from the field and 26.3% from three-point range.

The Spirit play their next game on Saturday in a rematch against the Adelaide 36ers who defeated them just two days ago in Canberra.

[Photo: The Daily Telegraph]

To commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the Iolani Classic, Nike has designed a limited edition Air Force 25 sneaker to be distributed to all participating coaches as well as to the people who have supported the Classic over the years. (Store availability has yet to be determined.)

The teams participating in the 2008 Iolani Prep Classic include perennial California powerhouse Fairfax, national champion contender Oak Hill, legendary basketball school DeMatha, former champion LeFlore, longtime attendee Montrose (coached by Stu Vetter), Putnam City from Oklahoma (features the ESPNU #1 recruit in the Class of 2009, Xavier Henry) and Whitney Young of Chicago (Michael Jordan’s son’s team).

Derrick Low ‘04, a 6-1 guard for the Sydney Spirit, scored 13 points in a 112-102 loss to the Melbourne Tigers to open the 2008-09 NBL season. The Tigers are considered to be among the top teams in the league and expected to contend for a title.

Stat Line: 6-20 (30%) from the field, 0-5 from three, 1-4 from the freethrow line, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal, 2 turnovers

The Spirit play their next game on Saturday, September 20th against the Wollongong Hawks.

Read an article about Low from the Sydney Morning Herald »

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In his third appearance as a pinch hitter for the Kansas City Royals, Kila Ka’aihue ‘02 recorded his 3rd hit of the season and raised his major league batting average to .429 (3-7).

Since receiving the call, Ka’aihue has seen limited time on the field and at the plate, sharing at-bats with the team’s three other first baseman. Thus far, he has started just one game (going 1-4) and has appeared in three games as a pinch hitter, striking out once and batting 1-1 in each of his other two opportunities.

Watch video of Ka’aihue’s first major league hit »

Former UH standout Bobby Nash ‘03 has been in Japan for the last two months helping to promote his new team, the Shiga Lakestars of the Basketball Japan (BJ) League. The Lakestars are one of two expansion teams to join the league in 2008-09 so team officials have been active in marketing their new club - organizing meet-and-greets, participating in charity auctions, holding youth clinics, etc.

Nash will make his professional debut on October 11th when the Lakestars take on the Osaka Evessa in the BJ League season opener. (Click the link for more photos)

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In his fourth game with the Sydney Spirit, rookie guard Derrick Low ‘04 scored 32 points against the Cairns Taipans on the final day of the Queensland Cup (a four-team pre-season tournament held in Queensland).

Low has yet to win a game as a professional, but has drawn rave reviews from on-lookers after averaging 18.3 points per game in his first four contests. He was even featured in a recent article in the “The Daily Telegraph” that talked about his style of play and his goals for the season. Read the article »

The Spirit will play three final pre-season exhibition games (all against the Toyota Alvarka of the Japan Basketball League) before opening their season at home against the Melbourne Tigers on September 14th.

[Photo: The Daily Telegraph - Click link below for more photos]

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