Nishida steps up for Japan's first win

OKINAWA (Japan) - The game between Japan and Chinese Taipei was an early one, but it provided a boost of energy that will have fans excited for the rest of the day. The home team pleased the fans with a 76-71 win over the visitors.

This is Japan’s first game of Window 2 and also their first victory of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Asian Qualifiers, building up momentum for an important game against Australia tomorrow. Chinese Taipei, however, have now suffered two straight losses.

Turning Point: Despite Chinese Taipei holding the lead for most of the game (29 minutes), it score was close through all four quarters, Neither team led by more that 8 points at any point of the game.

The game was all tied up with 2 minutes left at 69-69 after a three-pointer by Chinese Taipei’s Chou Kuei-Yu, and then Japan took control of the momentum.

From there, Japan took the lead on a driving layup by Yudai Nishida before team veteran Takatoshi Furukawa stole the ball in the immediate defensive possession that followed.

Game hero: Nishida poured in 13 points and 2 assists in the fourth quarter alone, including the go-ahead basket and the last two free-throws to ice the game. The 22-year-old was already having a good game before his fourth quarter explosion, and ended up with 27 points, 3 rebounds, 3assists, and 2 blocks on 9-13 shooting from the field.

Nishida was already impressive in the previous window against China, and now solidifies his status as another young player to watch for Japan.

Stats don't lie: Japan struggled on the glass, getting outrebounded 49-38 and allowing 18 offensive rebounds to Chinese Taipei.

In the end, that didn’t matter as they were able to score efficiently enough to stay ahead. The home team shot 42.4 percent from the field, 32.4 percent from beyond the three-point line, and 71.4 percent from the charity stripe, all higher than the shooting splits of their opponents.

Japan also made more three-pointers and free-throws than their opponents, and that proved to be the additional boost that they needed.

Bottom line: Again, Japan are already qualified for World Cup 2023 as co-hosts of the event so they didn’t exactly need this win. Still, it was a win that was great to have for coach Tom Hovasse in the buildup ahead of tomorrow’s clash against Australia.

It’s the loss for Chinese Taipei that might have a bit more impact in the standings of Group B, as they now have two losses in two games.

They said: "I think when we got down, not a single person put their head down. We were all in and nobody was just trying to take over selfishly. It was all about the team, it was all about playing our basketball and I felt that the players are really buying in and to win is huge for this team, just to get our confidence going and to get the games against China from last year out of our minds. It was important for us to win and play better than we did last year and I think we did both." - Tom Hovasse, Japan Head Coach

"I think I’ve said the whole week that all I want to do is win. Obviously coach said that we had a bad taste in our mouth from two losses to china so to come out here today and win is a great feeling." - Luke Evans, Japan

"It was a great game. I think that Japan did very well under the circumstances of being new together, but i felt that we had a tremendous effort to win the game. I’m so very proud of our team. Even in a loss, there's a lot of positive that our young team gained in this experience," - Charlie Parker, Chinese Taipei Head Coach

FIBA