MANILA – Javi Gomez de Liano and the Ibaraki Robots pulled off a stunning 85-79 win over Toyama Grouses in the 2021-2022 Japan B.League season on Sunday afternoon at the Adastria Mito Arena.
It was almost a disaster for the Robots in the endgame. They failed to maintain their advantage with the Grouses tying the score at 79-all behind the trio of Brice Johnson, Joshua Smith, and Naoki Uto.
Two free throws by Asahi Tajima surged the Robots ahead anew at 81-79. Misses by Grouses Uto and Keijuro Matsui led to free throws for Robots’ Eric Jacobsen with six seconds left for the final score.
Chehales Tapscott spearheaded the offense with 16 points. Jacobsen added 14 markers, while Keita Tsurumaki and Tajima got 12 and 10 points, respectively, for the Robots.
De Liano, however, was held scoreless after playing only for a minute and 15 seconds for the Robots, which snapped its three-game losing skid to move up to 7-26.
Johnson had double-double 24 points and 11 rebounds, while Smith ended up with 18 points and 13 boards as the Grouses dropped to 14-21 win-loss slate.
Filipino forward Dwight Ramos was unavailable for Toyama in the match after flying back to the Philippines to join the Gilas Pilipinas in the upcoming FIBA qualifying tournament.
Just like De Liano, Filipino center Matthew Aquino was held scoreless as Shinshu pulled off a 72-51 domination over Kyoto Hannaryz over at the former’s homecourt in White Ring.
Aquino, a former National University Bulldogs center, played five minutes in the game, tallying three rebounds as Shinshu notched its second straight win for a 16-17 slate.
Kobe Paras, for his part, was also scoreless but his team Niigata Albirex BB pulled off a come-from-behind 96-79 domination over Gunma. Niigata moved up to 5-29./PN
