Juan Gomez de Liano was scoreless in limited action in his third game as Earthfriends Tokyo Z suffered an 81-51 drubbing from Yamagata Wyverns in Division II of the Japan B.League at the Yamagata Prefectural Sports Park Saturday night, Oct. 9.
Yamagata already led by as many as 15 points at the start of the payoff period, 59-44, before the Wyverns unloaded a 16-2 run to pull away for good and double the lead at 76-46 with 1:12 to go courtesy of Takanori Tahara, Jawad Williams, Takashi Igarashi, and Tomoya Yamada.
The Wyverns first got their scoring momentum midway the third quarter as Williams and Yoshifumi Nakajima waxed hot and drained back-to-back triples en route to a 40-27 lead.
But it was Kenny Lawson Jr. who topscored for the Wyverns with 25 points on 11-of-13 shooting and garnered 11 rebounds and three steals.
Williams fired 19 points with five rebounds, four assists, and two steals while Igarashi contributed 10 markers, two rebounds, and one assist for Yamagata.
Pat Andree paced Tokyo Z with 14 points, three rebounds, two steals, and an assist.
De Liano entered the court at the 4:56 mark of the second quarter and missed his lone scoring attempt at 3:48 before getting subbed out seconds later.
Yamagata listed its third straight win while Tokyo found itself in contrast with three straight losses.
The Earthfriends have the chance to avenge their defeat Sunday, Oct. 10 at the same venue at 3 p.m (Manila time).
Meanwhile, Aomori Wat also absorbed a 95-86 defeat at the hands of Nishinomiya Storks sans Kenmark Carino, who is still completing his mandatory quarantine.