HILO — The call of competition has taken Mana Hopkins far from home but it brought the indigenous hoopster back home for the weekend to help secure a victory for Konawaena in the 11th annual Hawaii Alumni Basketball Tournament at Panaewa.
The one-time All-BIIF and first-team All-State player as a junior and senior poured through 31 points and took most of the fourth quarter off in leading the Wildcats’ alumni past Kamehameha, 57-36. Casey Poe led KSH grads with 18.
“It’s really fun to get back and see these (teammates),” Hopkins said, “and winning is always good.”
The former ‘Cats didn’t have a lot of trouble in the latter category, using a 24-3 second quarter edge to open up a 34-12 halftime lead, boosted by a 3-pointer from Hopkins that just beat the halftime buzzer. They coasted home the rest of the way. But for her, playing basketball on the Big Island has always been successful.
They won big at Konawaena, taking home a state championship in 2007 and after that, she wound up attending Hawaii Pacific University and enjoying all her games here.
“I really wanted to go to UHH (Hawaii Hilo), but they didn’t offer me anything, so when HPU offered a scholarship, I had to take it,” she said. “It all worked out.”
Asked if she recalled how HPU did against UHH, she said, “We won them all.”
She’s done a lot of winning, playing for the Kingdom of Hawaii team, consisting of native Hawaiians who played in indigenous tournaments this year in New Zealand and Australia.
Along the way, she took an armload of t-shirts supporting the opposition to the Three Meter Telescope at Maunakea and they were stopped up immediately. Her team played in two tournaments, the first in New Zealand where they were knocked off by Australia, which won the tournament, then they played in Australia’s tournament and beat the home team to take the championship.
“It’s been so much fun, so competitive,” she said. “In New Zealand, they beat us in double overtime, then in their tournament, we beat them by three. Just a great time.”
At the moment, Hopkins is hoping to hear about landing on a professional team in Australia, after having globetrotted a little bit in her professional career and having played in a semipro league in Jacksonville, Fla.
But her heart is at the mauna.
“I talk about it as much as I can,” she said, “and since I’ve been back here, I’ve been going up every week. You know, some people don’t seem to understand, but traveling around in places like New Zealand and Australia? As soon as I mention it, every Aboriginal person I have met, every Native American, they all immediately understand, they all have similar stories, like, all over the world.”
In Monday’s game, the Kamehameha team knew it was fortunate that it didn’t have to play the full loaded Honokaa squad that had won the last three Labor Day championships.
Unable to attend were Keisha Kanekoa, and her sister Kaylene, Chanis Fernandez and Kani Shigematsu, core components of those winning teams in previous years.
In the over-35 men’s final Monday, Iolani took a championship back to Oahu after a 65-68 win over Laupahoehe, while Hilo claimed the men’s open title.
