The Toyota Alvark dragged the SeaHorses into their own preferred style of contest ¡ª a tenacious defensive battle ¡ª and pulled even in the NBL Finals with a 69-66 win over Aisin in Sunday¡¯s Game 2 at Yoyogi National Gymnasium Annex.
The best-of-five series will resume on Monday night. Tipoff is 7:15 p.m.
Aisin cut a 12-point deficit to three with about a minute remaining in the final quarter, and tried to send the game into overtime as guard Makoto Hiejima attempted a 3-point shot in the closing seconds. But it was blocked by Daiki Tanaka and Toyota finished the game on top.
Jeff Gibbs led the Alvark with 16 points and 14 rebounds, and Michael Parker followed with 12 points and eight boards.
The Alvark had a better inside game than Aisin, outscoring their opponents 36-28 in the paint and outrebounding 46-34. They also held J.R. Sakuragi, Aisin¡¯s hero in Game 1, to just 10 points.
¡°We knew we had to play physically today,¡± Gibbs said. ¡°Yesterday was a very physical game. We know we had to shut down their inside game and we did a good job today.¡±
Toyota head coach Donald Beck said: ¡°This is more like our style of game. I think you saw the version of our team today more than you did yesterday.¡±
One of the key factors for Toyota¡¯s victory was its complete containment of scoring machine Kosuke Kanamaru, who led Aisin with 19.7 points per game in the season. Beck gave veteran Shohei Kikuchi the role of guarding him for much of the game and he successfully got the job done.
¡°Kanamaru would score more than 20 points easily if you let him play normally,¡± Kikuchi said. ¡°And we knew that if we could hold him, that would take one of their weapons away.¡±
Kanamaru, the league¡¯s leading Japanese scorer (fifth overall) and with the highest 3-point percentage (45.3) this season, was allowed to take only five shots throughout the game against Kikuchi¡¯s defense. The former player for the now-defunct Panasonic Trians ended up with just two points.
Aisin bench boss Kimikazu Suzuki insisted that even if Kanamaru could not attack, it would not have be a problem if other players had been more aggressive.
¡°We got our rhythm back in the fourth quarter,¡± Suzuki said. ¡°But it was a little too late.¡±
For the SeaHorses, who posted the NBL¡¯s second-best record (43-11), Gavin Edwards had 24 points and 14 rebounds.
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