HOKKAIDO (Japan) - Japan will undoubtedly take some major lessons from their first friendly in the buildup to the 2024 Paris Olympics, but the team was disappointed after wasting a 14-point lead on Saturday and losing 90-89 at home to a reserve Australia team.
Tom Hovasse's Japan will have a chance to rebound on Sunday as the two teams face off again in the second game of the Nippon Life Cup 2024 at the Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center.
Japan, who are ranked No. 26 in the FIBA World Ranking, Presented by Nike, and No. 5 Australia faced off at last year's FIBA Basketball World Cup in Okinawa, with the Boomers winning, 109-89.
The story of the game
The game came down to the final minute as Mitch Norton hit a three-pointer with 15 seconds left for an 89-86 Australia lead after Japan had raced back with six straight points to tie the game. Australian Elijah Pepper was sent to the free throw line with 3.2 seconds to play and he missed the first free throw.
The referees forced Pepper to leave the court with a cut to the head and Reyne Smith filled his spot and made the remaining foul shot. That turned out to be the game-winner as Yuki Togashi hit a buzzer-beater from half-court for the final scoreline.
Japan used some lights out shooting early on to take a 27-13 lead thanks to 6-of-12 three-pointers and the score was 27-15 after 10 minutes. Japan kept Australia at an arm's length in the second quarter, never seeing the Oceanians get closer than nine points and leading 47-38 at the break.
Japan were still up 61-60 when Australia scored the final eight points of the third quarter to pull within 61-58 and Pepper stepped up with some big baskets to put Australia up 68-66. After some back and forth, the Oceanians went ahead 82-77 and it was 86-80 with 90 seconds to play.
The player of the game
Sam Froling was an unstoppable force for the Australians as he scored 26 points to go with 10 rebounds and 2 assists. Pepper finished with 12 points and Alex Condon had 11 points. Keisei Tominaga paced Japan with 18 points while Togashi came off the bench for 16 points and 4 assists.
The stats of the game
Japan finished the game with 12-of-35 from long range for 34.3 percent - meaning just 6-of-23 after the first quarter. Australia meanwhile shot 57.1 percent on two-pointers and made 24-of-39 free throws compared to 15-of-19 for Japan.
The Australians also out-rebounded Japan 47-32, including 14 offensive rebounds.
The takeaways from the game
There was very little to take away from the game for Australia since none of Boomers in the running for the Olympics side are participating in the two-game tour with Dean Vickerman coaching the squad instead of Brian Goorjian.
His Japanese counterpart Hovasse meanwhile used the first game of their Olympic preparations as an opportunity to test players on the fringe of the team he wants to bring to Paris.
Hovasse's roster included seven players who played at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023. Hovasse also wanted to see 25-year-olds Hugh Watanabe and Kai Toews as well as 22-year-old Ren Kanechika, who had a solid season with the Chiba Jets - the East Asian Super League champions, and 21-year-old Yuto Yamanouchi, who played this season at the University of Portland.
Japan and Australia will tip again on June 23 at 3:00pm local time. Japan will then play two games against Korea on July 5 and 7 in Tokyo at the SoftBank Cup 2024.
Australia's Olympic Boomers side will have their first friendlies at the Ford BALLIN'24 event on July 2 and 4 against China in Melbourne.
Australia will be in Group A at the Olympics along with Canada and the winners of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament Spain and FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament Greece.
Japan will face hosts France, FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 winners Germany and the winner of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament Latvia.
FIBA