Matthew Wright and Kyoto Hannaryz finally rediscovered their winning ways and snapped their three-game slide while Dwight Ramos' all-around effort helped Levanga Hokkaido outlast Toyama in the 2022-23 B. League season on Sunday, Oct. 16.
Kyoto got back at Mikawa SeaHorses, 76-63, with Wright contributing eight points, two rebounds and four assists. It was Jarrod Uthoff, finishing with 26 points and 13 rebounds, who spearheaded a strong second half to power his team to a come-from-behind win.
Ramos, on the other hand, put up another all-around game of six points, two rebounds, seven assists, two blocks and four steals to provide support to Brock Motum who posted 25 points and seven rebounds. Hokkaido bucked a slow start where they trailed by 10, 27-17, in the opening frame.
The Ravena brothers, Kiefer and Thirdy, meanwhile suffered losses after both of their teams suffered huge collapses against separate foes.
Kiefer’s Shiga Lakes squandered a 51-34 lead at the half against the hard-fighting Hiroshima Dragonflies. A Ryo Terashima jumper with 21 seconds left won it for the Dragonflies who also got solid outing from Dwayne Evans who had 22 points, seven rebounds and five assists while Kerry Blackshear posted a double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Kiefer added 13 points and five assists for Shiga which was paced by Kelvin Martin and Kai Toews who finished with 15 points each. Fellow Filipino import Justine Baltazar, on the other hand, barely played with the Dragonflies with a minute of playing time and missed his lone attempt from trey.
His younger brother, Thirdy, unloaded 13 points, seven rebounds and seven assists to provide support to Isaiah Hick’s 23 points, seven rebounds output – both of which, however, were not enough to avert the NeoPhoenix’s collapse against the Ibaraki Robots, 96-94.
San-En led by as many as 21 points heading into the payoff period but couldn’t pull the stops against Ibaraki who capped the blazing fourth quarter run with a 13-1 finishing kick to nab the win. Three players scored with 16 points for the Robots in Chehales Tapscott, Hayato Yamaguchi, and Thomas Kennedy.
Nagoya Diamond Dolphins, meanwhile, couldn’t sweep Yokohama B Corsairs, exacting their revenge, 88-78. Coty Clark paced the Dolphins with 18 points and nine rebounds while Ray Parks Jr. played 20 minutes with seven points and three rebounds.
Jay Washington also had solid contributions off the bench in Ryukyu Golden King’s 99-65 victory over Niigata. He finished with six points built on two triples in eight minutes of play.
In B2 League, Jordan Heading cooled down with only 10 points and five assists across his name although Nagasaki still came out with a 97-80 win over Aomori Watts.
Roosevelt Adams only had six points as his Kagawa Five Arrows fell to Kumamoto Volters, 93-67, while Kobe Paras remained to be a DNP in Altiri Chiba’s 87-78 win over Fukushima.