For another year, the JX-Eneos Sunflowers finished the season on top.
The Sunflowers wrapped up the best-of-five WJBL Finals with a 75-66 win in Game 4 at Tokyo¡¯s Yoyogi National Gymnasium No. 2 and captured the league title for the eighth consecutive year.
The ¡°eight-peat¡± is the second-longest streak in WJBL history, only behind the 10 straight championships won by the Chanson V-Magic (1990-91 season through 1999-2000).
Sunflowers star forward/center and WNBA player Ramu Tokashiki racked up game-high totals of 24 points and 13 rebounds to contribute to the victory for the Sunflowers, who have now earned 19 WJBL titles.
JX-Eneos captain and point guard Asami Yoshida, the Finals MVP, followed Tokashiki with 21 points and five assists. She hit five 3-pointers in seven attempts.
In a physical defensive battle, Fujitsu trailed JX-Eneos by just three points at the end of the first half (30-27). But the Sunflowers came through in the third, outscoring their rival 26-17 to seize momentum.
¡°We knew that whichever team would have a stronger spirit in the remaining 20 minutes would win,¡± said Tokashiki, who earned her third WJBL season MVP this year, of how her team entered the second half. ¡°We surely did enter (the second half) with a tough mindset.¡±
The Red Wave, who were swept by JX-Eneos in last year¡¯s Finals, displayed some resiliency in the final quarter, but were unable to stop the scoring by the Sunflowers.
¡°All of us refuse to lose, that¡¯s our strength,¡± said Yoshida, the starting point guard for the Japan women¡¯s national team, who will compete in this summer¡¯s Rio de Janeiro Olympics along with Tokashiki. ¡°All our players think they don¡¯t want to be the losers.¡±
Young point guard Rui Machida led Fujitsu with 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds for the Red Wave, who won the JBL Finals during the 2007-08 season, the year before JX-Eneos began its championship streak. She had a game-high six turnovers as well.
Fujitsu¡¯s lone win came in Game 2 on Saturday, when it crushed the Sunflowers 103-78.
¡°Both teams had fatigue, but we were able to keep up with them until the third quarter,¡± Fujitsu head coach BT Toews said in fluent Japanese. ¡°But we started running out of gas and our offense got confused.¡±
Fujitsu was hurt by its poor shooting from behind the 3-point arc, going 7-for-30.
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