JPN – Sakurada strikes form, Toyota enter final

TOKYO (WJBL) - Ryoko Yano’s perseverance found some welcome support in Yoshie Sakurada’s timely return of form as last year’s runners-up Toyota Antelopes breezed past Denso Iris 71-66 in the third and decisive game of the best-of-three WJBL semifinal series at the Yoyogi National Stadium on Tuesday.

Denso had won the Game 1 of the series 66-41 at Gumma before Toyota bounced back with a 62-61 win at Yoyogi a day later to stretch the series to the third game.

The win set up a repeat of last year’s title clash with twice defending champions JX Sunflowers having already made the final beating Fujitsu Redwaves 67-58 on Saturday and 73-68 on Sunday.

The final series, a best-of-five affair, will tip off at the Funabashi Arena in Chiba on March 10.

Yano, the most consistent performer for Toyota in the first two games – with scores of 16 and 14 points – led Toyota’s scoring on Tuesday with 22 points and had an all-round effort with 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals and 4 blocks.

But it was Sakurada (pic above), who drew a blank in both the earlier games, who was the catalyst in Toyota’s win in the decider.

The 27-year-old Japan international fired in 7 of her 10 attempts on the paint and returned 2/5 in three-pointers for a 19-point game – seven of them in the decisive fourth quarter.

Toyota raced ahead 20-14 in the first quarter, but thereafter struggled to build any substantial lead.

Denso, on the other chipped away at the lead and brought the score to 50-52 at the start of the fourth when Sakurada’s contribution became significant.

Hitomu Suzuki had 15 points for Toyota and shared the rebounding honors with Asami Ikeda – each with 7 collections.

Emi Kudeken had a game-high 8 assists.

Takada’s game-high in vain

Maki Takada like she had in Game 1, led the scoring for the game with 23 points in an 11/16 field record. The 22-year-old also collected 9 rebounds and had 6 steals.

Arisa Fujiwara scored 18 points and Kumiko Ohba 14 in the losing cause.

FIBA Asia