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San-En NeoPhoenix snapped an eight-game losing streak in the 2019-20 B. League season by beating Levanga Hokkaido 83-69 in Thirdy Ravena’s return on Saturday at the Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center in Japan.
Ravena played limited minutes and scored just five points, three rebounds and three assists in 18 minutes from the bench, but NeoPhoenix pulled off big games from imported Kyle Hunt and Stevan Jelovac for their first win in more than a month.
Hunt scored 22 points, 11 rebounds, a steal and a block, while Jelovac scored 21 points, 10 rebounds and four assists for San-En, who also lost the last four games without Ravenna on board before the big road win for improve to 3-17 in the Western District.
One down, 20-19, San-En unleashed a 20-5 streak behind a red-hot Jelovac, who was 19 in the first half and capped that rally with a 3-pointer to put NeoPhoenix ahead 39-25 with a little more than two minutes to go.
It was all San-En from there, as the visiting team continued to pressure Levanga and even took the lead to 30, 73-43, midway through the fourth quarter to roll towards a rare and easy victory.
Takanobu Nishikawa and Tatsuya Suzuki also added 11 and nine apiece for the NeoPhoenix, which shot an impressive 50 percent from the field while hitting 8 of 22 3-pointers (36.4 percent) against Levanga.
Jawad Williams scored 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while Asahi Tajima had 14 points and seven assists for Hokkaido, who missed out on B League leading scorer Nick Mayo and fell to 4-16 in the Eastern District after a fifth. consecutive defeat.
San-En can score a second straight win in the second of consecutive road games against Levanga on Sunday at 1:05 pm (Manila time).
THE SCORES
San-En NeoPhoenix 83 –Hunt 22, Jelovac 21, Nishikawa 11, Suzuki 9, Ravena 5, Yamamoto 5, Kawashima 4, Shuto 2, Ota 2, Milenovic 2.
Levanga Hokkaido 69 –Williams 15, Tajima 14, Taylor 9, Nakano 7, Kuzuhura 6, Hashimoto 5, Maye 5, Makizen 3, Uchida 3, Tamaki 2, Sakurai 0.
Quarters: 17-12, 41-28, 63-43, 83-69.
