The Kagawa Five Arrows pulled off a comeback 88-83 win over the Aomori Wat's in Division II of the Japan B.League at the Zentsuji Civic Gymnasium Saturday, Oct. 23.
Terrance Woodbury topscored for Kagawa with 24 points to go with eight assists, six rebounds, one block, Angus Brandt contributed 18 markers, 13 rebounds, three assists, one block while Hiroki Taniguchi and Kodama Takamichi scored 14 and 11, respectively.
Aomori led by a small margin from the get-go but Kagawa's Takamichi fired a three-pointer for a 79-all deadlock with 1:58 remaining in the payoff period.
With momentum on Kagawa's side, Brandt drained a couple of free throws to lead by two points only, 81-79, with less than a minute and a half to go.
Aomori's Renaldo Dixon returned the favor but split his shot from the free throw line as Woodbury scored four straight points off a jumper and a pair of free throws with 15 ticks left.
The Wat's never lost hope and made their last-second surge as Hayate Komasawa nailed a three-pointer, his 19th point of the game, to cut the deficit by two, 85-83, with nine seconds remaining.
But it all boiled down to Brandt and Woodbury securing the lead from the charity stripe as the Arrows improved to a 5-2 record in the West District while the Wat's remained second to the last in the East District at 1-6.
Komasawa led Aomori with 19 points, six rebounds, two steals, Michael Craig added 13 markers, nine assists, five rebounds, two steals, and one block, and Kiichi Kikuyama had 12 points, two assists, and one rebound.
Filipino forward Kemark Cariño went scoreless in limited minutes but contributed two rebounds for the Wat's.
Kagawa and Aomori will clash anew Sunday, Oct. 24 at 1 p.m. (Manila time).