Mohegan — Kemba Walker used to hang out with Tiffany Hayes, Caroline Doty, Maya Moore and Kalana Greene at UConn, Walker a member of a national championship team for the men's basketball team, the others NCAA champions with the women's basketball team.

“Those girls were very cool,” Walker, a member of the NBA's Charlotte Hornets said Friday night from Mohegan Sun Arena. “I would go to their apartment and play Rock Band. … They love the game of basketball.”

The UConn men's and women's teams were part of an ensemble cast Friday night at the Jim Calhoun Celebrity Classic.

The game, held every other year as a UConn men's basketball reunion/fundraiser for the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center at UConn Health, was taking place for the eighth time, raising more than $8 million overall. It was the first time, however, that it was a combined effort between the men and women.

Former NBA great Ray Allen walked on the court not long before the 7:30 p.m. tip and wrapped former UConn and WNBA great Nykesha Sales in a bear-hug. Allen chatted animatedly with Calhoun, his former coach, while the two were seated front and center for a combined team picture.

The list of former UConn favorites included Richard Hamilton, Emeka Okafor, Ryan Boatright, Andre Drummond, Shabazz Napier and Khalid El-Amin for the men and Barbara Turner, Carla Berube, Svetlana Abrosimova, Sales and Greene for the women, among others.

The teams were split into “Blue” and “White.” The first and fourth quarters were played among the men's players and the second and third quarters played as co-ed.

The Blue team won 116-114 on a shot by Taliek Brown in double-overtime.

Jeremy Lamb, who also plays for the Hornets, was named the men's MVP, finishing with 30 points, six rebounds and five assists, including a thunderous dunk on an offensive rebound that forced overtime. Sales was the women's MVP with 16 points and four rebounds. Both were playing for the Blue side.

Calhoun appeared wearing a blue shirt with white piping emblazoned with the words “UConn basketball.” He pointed to the wording of the phrase as the idea behind the night.

“That's what it's about,” Calhoun said, “… Not women or men or anything else. They're all classmates, teammates. It's all for the hospital, for the kids. It's a reunion. I don't want to make it about anything other than UConn basketball.”

Calhoun, who used to work out in the training room at UConn, said he remembers Abrosimova rehabbing her torn ACL. He said that UConn women's luminaries Rebecca Lobo and Jennifer Rizzotti have supported his charity game for years.

He was also prideful that the all-star game was one of three in the nation approved by the NBA. Calhoun said the game's organizers have to contact each NBA team that lends a player.

“The kids keep coming back,” Calhoun said. “It's wonderful.”

Turner, who played on two national championship teams for the women in 2003-04, competes professionally now in Turkey. She said the notion that the teams don't get along because of their coaches' famed squabbles with each other is false.

“It's a myth,” Turner said. “Sometimes we would play pick up with them, one-on-one, two-on-two. I still keep in contact with a few guys who were there when I was, Hilton Armstrong, Rashad Anderson.”

“No one else understands us,” Greene said of the similarities between the men's and women's basketball programs. “We had the same type of schedule, the same demands, the same expectations. We would see these guys every day. They're like our brothers.”

Greene said that Walker wasn't exactly the best at Rock Band, either, the musical video game they would play back in Storrs.

“No good,” Greene said.

Drummond, who played at St. Thomas More prior to UConn and is now a member of the NBA's Detroit Pistons, entered the arena Friday and jokingly sabotaged a photo being taken of a few of the women's players, Drummond walking through the back of the shot with his arms raised.

Walker said it's always nice to be around “the people that love you.”

“Always, no question. It's always special to come back,” Walker said. “There's no question (Calhoun) has helped me become a better player. He helped me be a man on an off the court. He's a big inspiration to me.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com