| Friendships sparked and players reunited at AMG Asia-Pacific Tournament |
| Written by Jesse Sparks, Dustin Geddes, & Scott Lowe | |
| Wednesday, 18 November 2009 | |
 Tsung-Hsien (Jet) Chang, a sophomore from Taiwan, flies to the hoop.
Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams participated. The men defeated both the Fijian National Team 96-53 on Friday night, and China University of Mining and Technology 101-64 on Saturday night. Earlier that evening, the women fell just short of victory in their game against local exhibition team D.One, losing 68-73.  Cory Chase (20) prepares for the shot over approaching defender. As soon as Marques found out that his family members were coming, he was excited. “My brothers are in high school in New Zealand, so I haven’t played against my brothers for about four years,” said Marques. “So when I heard they were coming I was excited.” Referring to the abundance of family members competing Friday night, Whippy quipped, “If I was playing on [the national team], it would be the Whippy team.” Despite much prodding from the Fijian community, Marques could not play for the Fiji team. “All throughout the week the Fijian community kept asking me, ‘Who are you going to play for, Fiji or BYU Hawaii?’ I had to play for BYU Hawaii, but I was really excited for that game.” Even with the large margin of victory, Marques says he did not rub it in to his brothers. There was, however, light banter after the game. “We were all having dinner and I had the stat sheet and we were looking over it. They were worried about who got more points or who had more turnovers. It was fun.” Older brother and BYUH graduate Leonard Whippy, who played for Fiji in the game, also commented on how fun it was to play with his brothers and cousins. “It was good fun. It was the first time that we actually played together at a high-level. We’ve played before but it was always in the gym or somewhere else.” In addition, Leonard revealed one of their familial strategies, which he admits did not work too well. “We knew Marques fouled a lot so we tried to get him into foul trouble, but he didn’t foul all that much in the game.”  Heath Gameran (24) zips past a Chinese defender. When asked about how he felt about the Asia-Pacific Tournament, assistant coach Brandon Akana responded that there were “friendships gained and good contacts made for the University.” He said, “It was good preparation for the season and gave the new players a chance to better learn the system.” The top-ranked Seasiders will open the regular season on Nov. 25 against Oakland City (IN) at 7:30 p.m. in Laie. The women’s team opens their regular season on November 27th against UH-Hilo in Laie at 7 p.m. --Photos by Ryan Bagley
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