PEMBROKE — The goal of both The University of North Carolina at Pembroke’s men’s and women’s basketball teams is to end the season by holding a trophy.

Because each did that in some capacity last season, Aniah McManus and Bradlee Haskell brought those dual pieces of crystal onto the floor to start the new season Thursday as the teams were introduced at the start of Moonlight Madness, the school’s annual basketball kickoff event at the English E. Jones Center.

The night included the introduction of each player on both teams, a “hot shot challenge” and a dunk competition, intrasquad scrimmages and plenty more in between — including more than a couple mentions of the regular-season conference championship won by the Braves men last season and the conference tournament title claimed by the Lady Braves.

“I thought we had a really good crowd, there was a lot of energy,” UNCP men’s basketball coach Drew Richards said. “I thought our marketing and athletic department did a great job getting the word out, and just structurally I thought it was one of the better Moonlight Madnesses that we’ve had in a long time, so I was really glad to see it work out.”

In the men’s intrasquad scrimmage, which was 12 minutes with a running clock, the Grey team, which started returners Javonte Waverly, JaJuan Carr, and Elijah Cobb, along with freshman Dallas Garnder and transfer Amadou Faye,, won 37-32 over the White team, which started returners Haskell and Amare Miller, transfers Josh Berenbaum and Jamarvious jones and freshman Will Gray.

Gardner and Carr had four baskets each for the Grey team and Cobb had three, including one 3-pointer.

“Dallas (Gardner) is just a tough-nosed, hard-playing (guy), reminds me of a Brandon Watts type,” Richards said. “The day before Moonlight Madness, he dove on the floor, busted his eye open and chipped his tooth, and he finished practice, went to a dentist (Thursday), got it fixed, played Moonlight Madness. That tells you the level of toughness that you’re dealing with there.”

For the White team, Haskell and Jones each hit three baskets, with Haskell hitting two 3s and Jones hitting one.

“All I needed to see was a couple go in. That’s all I need, and it’s time time for a light show,” said Jones, a Glenville State transfer in his first season with the Braves. “It was a great event, I enjoyed it. This is my senior, and never having something like this I really enjoyed the time and the event.”

“The new guys have been good,” Richards said. “Jamarvious (Jones) obviously is an elite shooter, and that’s something he brings to the table that I thought we lacked last year was maybe a guy with some size that can make shots.

The women’s intrasquad scrimmage featured a Black team, which started returners Kelci Adams, Hannah Russell, Zaria Clark, Alcenia Purnell and Jada Coleman, against a White team, which started returners Lillian Flantos, Malea Garrison, Kalaya Hall and McManus and freshman Natalie Evington.

“It’s just good to get in front of people and the lights come on, and just kind of see how they react,” Lady Braves coach John Haskins said. “It’s not ‘serious’ serious, but we had fun; we shot a bunch of shots, and we made a few.”

Hall hit four baskets including a 3 for the White team; freshman Anastasia Sinclair hit three 3s off the bench for the Black team, with Zaria Clark hitting three buckets and Kelci Adams a pair.

“Anastasia shot it well,” Haskins said. “She isn’t known as a shooter, but she shot it well, and she can make 3s; she’s more of an attacker, and she’s a freshman, she’s learning, and she’s going to be a good player for us. Kalaya is aggressive offensively, and needs to be probably.”

“It’s a fun event, but you still want to go through what you work on and what you’ve been practicing in practice, because the season is right around the corner, so just executing and knocking down shots,” Hall said.

Earlier in the evening, Jones won the dunk competition, scoring a perfect 40 in a dunk-off tiebreaker with a windmill from an off-the-backboard alley-oop from Carr. Jones beat Gardner in the dunk-off after both scored a 36 in the final round. Tyreik McCallum and Gray were eliminated earlier in the competition.

“I got two of my dunks stolen, and I really ain’t a trick dunker, so I had to find some out of the bag,” Jones said. “Everything that I did just came straight to the mind for me.”

Haskins and assistant coach Donald Bohannon surprised Hall with a commemorative ball recognizing the senior guard scoring her 1,000th career point late last season.

“I didn’t even know about it; all my friends and my parents knew, and even my friends on campus, they all knew about it,” Hall said. “I didn’t even know, so they did a good job keeping that a secret.”

Both teams will now continue the buildup to the season; the Braves men traveled to Texas on Friday, just hours after competing Moonlight Madness, ahead of their preseason exhibition against Houston at 4 p.m. Saturday, facing the No. 7-ranked team in Division I according to the AP Poll. The Cougars are coached by Pembroke native and UNCP alumnus Kelvin Sampson.

UNCP also travels to No. 2 Duke for an exhibition game at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“It’s a great experience for those guys,” Richards said. “We’re hoping, at times, we can maybe compete with the elite of college basketball, and if we can get through these two exhibitions and feel like at some point in these two exhibitions we competed with the best of the best, that can bode well for what we can do in the season.”

The Braves men open the regular season Nov. 4 against Emporia State in a neutral-site event hosted by Florida Southern, before playing the host Mocs the next night. The team’s first five games are away from Pembroke before facing Fayetteville State at home on Nov. 21.

UNCP’s women have preseason exhibitions against a junior-college team and Augusta before opening the regular season at Coker on Nov. 11; the Lady Braves’ home opener is Nov. 18 against St. Augustine’s.