Hawaii basketball: Rainbow Warriors make Beon Ja Riley official, Wahine sign 5

Beon Ja Riley / Courtesy photo

The Hawaii men’s basketball team made its one and only (so far) signing official on the first day of National Letter of Intent signing day Wednesday, while the Hawaii women’s basketball team put together a second straight large haul in the fall.

UH officially announced the signing of 6-foot-6 guard Beon Ja Riley, who’d previously announced his commitment to the Rainbow Warriors.

Worth noting that it was just “Beon Riley,” with no “Ja” in today’s announcement. Eran Ganot, who’s been on medical leave, supplied a comment in Wednesday’s announcement: “He’s a very physical, competitive, and versatile player who has the chance to make an immediate impact on our team. … “With his strong character and work ethic, Beon embodies everything that we look for in a student-athlete here at the University of Hawaii. It’s a great day for our program and we couldn’t be more happy for Beon and his family.”

Laura Beeman’s Rainbow Wahine (who play at Loyola Marymount tonight) announced a haul of four freshman last fall, and have apparently outdone themselves. There’s one local prospect (Waiakea High guard Kelsie Imai) to go with four mainland players. All will be true freshmen next year. Statistics on the players are as yet unavailable.

Besides the 5-7 Imai, there is 5-10 guard Meilani McBee (Kennewick, Wash.); 5-8 guard Teionni McDaniel (Las Vegas); 5-11 guard/forward Daejah Phillips (Las Vegas); and 6-2 forward Nnenna Orji (Etiwanda, Calif.). McDaniel and Phillips are current teammates at Centennial High School.

Beeman wasn’t immediately available for comment on her signing class as the Wahine prepared to face LMU.

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