The 100th Emperor’s Cup All Japan Basketball Championship, 2nd Round, Day 3 (6th Round) @Takumi Arena

Match Details

Match: Akita Northern Happinets vs Alvark Tokyo
Date: Monday, September 23rd
Start Time: 14:00
Venue: Takumi Arena

Match Score

Akita Northern Happinets: 14 (1Q) 22 – 7 (2Q) 19 – 12 (3Q) 16 – 17 (4Q) 19 = 50
Alvark Tokyo: 76

Post-Match Comments

Head Coach Kenzo Maeda

I think we were completely outplayed. There were some areas where our defense was not thorough, and we made some adjustments in the second half, but this is the difference between us and the strong teams, and we recognize this as our current position. We are very concerned about not being able to score points and making poor shots, but I think that Gadiaga, Mekoulu, and Moran, who are playing in the B.League (B1) for the first time, were able to get a feel for what kind of league it is. We have another preseason game against the Chiba Jets next week, so we would like to work hard to improve our team in preparation for that.

Wataru Kumagai

There will be 60 games like this in the regular season, and today was a really physical game. If we don’t do our one-possession defense and rebounding well for 40 minutes, the game will turn out like this. I don’t think it can be dismissed as just a good game experience. Of course, we have a lot to learn from this game. But there were some good plays in it. I think the number of turnovers by Alvark Tokyo, 21, is due to our aggressive defense.
Next, we need to sort out what we need to improve on the offensive side, what went well, and what didn’t go well. We need to make sure that everyone understands what we want to do as a team, and then we’ll do that for the entire 40 minutes.

Game Photo Gallery

Coming soon…