An old scorer never dies.
Veteran center and former UCLA player J.R. Sakuragi paced the Aisin SeaHorses with 30 points and four assists in their 86-82 win over the Toyota Alvark in Game 1 of the best-of-five NBL Finals at Yoyogi National Gymnasium Annex on Saturday.
Toyota used its signature stingy defense to bounce back from a 16 point deficit and trailed by just three points with less than two minutes remaining in the final quarter.
But Sakuragi hit a key jumper with 28.7 seconds left, and Aisin escaped with the win.
Former University of Connecticut player Gavin Edwards followed Sakuragi with 16 points and 15 rebounds for the Aichi Prefecture-based club, which extended its unbeaten streak to five during this postseason.
¡°I just tried to get everybody involved,¡± the 38-year-old Sakuragi, who scored eight points in the fourth quarter, said after the game, which drew 2,241 fans. ¡°I know it takes a team effort to win in a five-game series, so I just need everyone to be playing the best they can play.¡±
The SeaHorses have better size overall and took advantage of it on Saturday. They scored 44 points in the paint (36 for Toyota) and outrebounded their opponents 38-33.
¡°There¡¯s no game that we can win easily,¡± Aisin bench boss Kimikazu Suzuki said. ¡°Coming into the game, we didn¡¯t particularly try to do anything special, just tried to play how we¡¯ve played all year. But we scored more points inside and it gave us an edge in the end.¡±
Meanwhile, Toyota succeeded in holding down the scoring of the Aisin¡¯s ace shooter Kosuke Kanamaru, who had just 11 points.
But the Eastern Conference club was a little shaky in the beginning of the game and it wound up being one of the thing that cost them the game.
¡°I thought the rest of the game was played evenly,¡± Toyota head coach Donald Beck said. ¡°The first quarter hurt us. But I¡¯m very, very happy with the second, third and fourth quarters.¡±
For the Alvark, Jeff Gibbs had a team-high 20 points and eight rebounds, followed by Xavier Gibson and Daiki Tanaka, who scored 16 points apiece.
Game 2 will tip off at 3 p.m. at the same venue on Sunday.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.