Professional basketball club Anyang Chungkwanjang was unable to overcome a deficit and suffered its first loss in the East Asian Super League.
The defending champions suffered their first loss of the tournament, falling 69-102 to Japan’s Chiba Jets in Group A of the East Asian Super League at Anyang Gymnasium on Wednesday.
With the loss in their final home game of the group stage, ChungKwanJang fell to 2-1 in Group A and lost ground to Chiba, who have won four straight games.
With a seven-game losing streak in the KBL regular season, Chung was unable to find the momentum to revitalize the team.
The Jets, the No. 1 team in Japan’s B League regular season in 2022-2023, started three long players – Xavier Cooks, John Mooney and Ira Brown – at the same time and dominated under the basket.
Chung was unable to find a replacement after Omari Spellman left the team due to injury. That left Darryl Monroe (14 points, 11 rebounds) as the lone foreign player to stop the offense.
Ziva’s Mooney scored 20 points and pulled down 15 rebounds in the first half alone.
Down 8-29 in the rebounding battle in the first half, Chung went into halftime trailing 39-49, although they were countered by a pair of dunks from Lens Abando (17 points) and mid-range baskets from Choi Sung-won (7 points) and Kim Kyung-won (11 points).
“We were expecting a rebounding disadvantage because Monroe was the only foreign player,” said head coach Kim Sang-sik in a halftime interview, adding, “We will strengthen our rebounding in the second half.”
However, the height and size disadvantage could not be overcome in the third quarter, and the score widened to 53-77.
Yuki Togashi, a guard for Japan’s national team and Chiba’s captain, scored 20 points despite his short stature of 168 centimeters, including a three-pointer in front of the 203-centimeter Lee Jong-hyun. 토토사이트