YOKOHAMA ¨C After an electrifying start to the B. League¡¯s inaugural season with a two-game series between the Alvark Tokyo and Ryukyu Golden Kings earlier the week, other clubs made their league debut across the nation on Saturday.

At Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium, the Sunrockers Shibuya came through in the final quarter, outscoring the hosts 29-10 en route to an 81-63 victory over the Yokohama B-Corsairs before a jam-packed crowd of 3,297.

Former Rutgers inside player Kadeem Jack had a game-high 22 points and nine rebounds, while Yuki Mitsuhara and Ira Brown followed with 13 points each for the Sunrockers.

The game was close for the first three quarters, and as Sunrockers head coach BT Toews put it afterward, ¡°(Yokohama) could¡¯ve won the game easily.¡±

But Jack and team captain Kenta Hirose stepped up offensively for Shibuya, scoring seven and nine points, respectively, in the fourth quarter alone (Hirose had zero points in the first three quarters), while Shibuya¡¯s defense kept Yokohama¡¯s offense in check.

For the B-Corsairs, who had a 53-52 lead at the end of the third quarter, newcomer and former JBL scoring champion Takuya Kawamura drained three 3-pointers and racked up 15 points.

Despite the win, Toews summarized the performance as ¡°a very poorly played game¡± by his squad.

¡°I thought we didn¡¯t start to play any defense until the beginning of the fourth quarter,¡± Toews said.

There was a simple reason for that. The Sunrockers didn¡¯t have two of their core players in Mitsuhara and Brown due to their national team activities for the majority of the offseason. As a result, they couldn¡¯t fully practice with their teammates and get on the same page before the opener.

Asked how long he thinks it¡¯d take to get to a certain level for the team, Toews said that it¡¯s difficult to predict.

¡°Maybe one season, I don¡¯t know,¡± he said, jokingly. ¡°But by the time we enter the All-Japan (Championship in January), every player on my team should be on the same page. They may not reach their max potential, but their confusion should be gone.¡±

While Toews displayed his frustration over his team¡¯s unsatisfactory game, Yokohama head coach Taketo Aoki showed his frustration over the fact that his team wasn¡¯t able to deliver a win in front of the large home crowd for its B. League debut.

¡°I¡¯m so disappointed that we didn¡¯t win today,¡± Aoki said. ¡°I¡¯ve personally been involved in basketball since when I was a child and finally an era like this has come. Our players did their best, and I feel pleased that it¡¯s paid off for all of us to have continued to play basketball.¡±