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Two-time defending champion Alvark Tokyo gave Thirdy Ravena and visiting San-En NeoPhoenix a heavy beating with a 94-76 win in the continuation of the 2020-21 season on Saturday at the Tachikawa Tachihi Arena in Japan.
Fresh off their best game in League B. Just three days ago, Ravena was quiet for a San-En team that slipped to a third straight loss and scored just four points on 1 of 9 shooting, though it did add three rebounds. . , three assists and a steal in 22 minutes.
This was in stark contrast to his stellar outing on Wednesday, when he scored 18 points (7-of-14 shots, three 3-pointers), five rebounds and three steals in a narrow loss to Osaka during his home debut.
It was Kyle Hunt who charged San-En once again, scoring 28 points on 13 of 18 shots and 11 rebounds. Stevan Jelovac bounced back from a lousy outing against Evessa and had 20 points and seven rebounds.
San-En had a small 14-12 lead early in the first quarter, but it was all Alvark from there after he counterattacked with a 15-4 run to take a 27-18 lead after the first quarter.
Things only got worse for NeoPhoenix even after they slashed the lead to five, 27-22, early in the second, when Alvark responded with a 16-5 flurry this time behind Daiki Tanaka to lead to 16 before halftime.
Ravena scored her first two points of the game via a pair of free throws that cut Alvark’s lead to 10, 55-45, but Tokyo quickly prevented San-En from gaining momentum by landing a triple from Tanaka and a finish on the hoop to import Deshon Thomas to give them a cushion of 15 points.
San-En couldn’t keep up with Alvark after that, with the defending FIBA Asia Cup champions even upping the lead to 22 late in the quarter with the game almost decided.
Tanaka led Alvark with 21 points, Thomas added 17, while imported Kevin Jones threw 14 and eight rebounds. Three other players in Seiya Ando (12), Yutaro Suda (11) and Alex Kirk (10) broke double figures for Tokyo.
The NeoPhoenix fell to 2-12 in the West district, while Alvark fell to 9-5 in the East.
San-En will try to bounce back in the second of two road games against this same Alvark team on Sunday.
