B.League Game of the Day: Thrills Build to Blockbuster Ending in Shibuya
The best game played in Japan on October 20th 2024 was also one of the best games of basketball seen anywhere in the world on that day.
It was contested within the Japanese capital between two teams with unassuming track records so far this season. Home team Sunrockers Shibuya had seen mixed fortunes so far in the season, while the visiting Hiroshima Dragonflies were yet to get a win. These differences in form however did not seem apparent on court,
Both teams were evenly matched in the paint at the outset of the game, Hiroshima trying to make their height advantage felt was met by Shibuya’s strength and ability to navigate and score in traffic.
After there being little to nothing between the teams at the start, the first quarter ended with Shibuya giving up ten points to the Dragonflies, who were not done yet. They opened Q2 with four more points and their lead reached sixteen. Josh Hawkinson finally broke the visitors’ scoring streak, but the Sunrockers were left with a lot of ground to make up.
With Reid Travis making his presence felt in the low post and Leo Vandrame effective from beyond the arc, Shibuya tried to instigate a fight back, but they were finding it hard to contain Nick Mayo and Takuto Nakamura. The two maintained the Dragonflies’ double-digit lead, the team then put up twelve points without reply and Hiroshima’s lead became 22 late in the third.
Shibuya went into the fourth quarter dogged but not down. Anthony Clemmons turned every Sunrockers’ possession into a scoring opportunity for himself and his team mates, making their strength over the Dragonflies count at a crunch point of the game.
In four minutes Shibuya reduced a sixteen-point deficit to six, though their defence still could not deny Dwayne Evans, who came alive for Hiroshima in the last quarter. In the final minute Shibuya went on a 8-0 run, making it a single possession game with eight seconds to go.
On the final play of the game Hiroshima played the tightest defence they could and made it so that Daiki Tanaka’s final shot of the game fell short.
Nine players finished in double digits, with Clemmons leading all on the floor with 23 points for Shibuya. His team mate Hawkinson finishing with 13 points and 15 total rebounds in the loss. Nick Mayo was the leading scorer for Hiroshima with 18, followed by Nakamura with 16 in the emphatic win for the Dragonflies, finally and deservedly in the win column.
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