By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Joshua Hawkinson and Yuki Kawamura by scoring a total of 53 points stole the thunder of Lauri Markkanen.
Japan got the big win by 10 (98-88) over Finland as Hawkinson scored 28 and Kawamura 25 against the huge effort of Markkanen who had 27 points.
However, he didn’t have enough help in a thrilling game held in Okinawa with the hosts of Group E coming back with scoring 35 points in the last 10 minutes of the contest on a night full of ups and downs.
The home team got a big first quarter, leading 22-15, but Markkanen took over the game and Finland led at halftime by 10 (46-36).
Everyone expected that this would be the end of it and there would be no comeback for Japan, but they were wrong.
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To be exact, Finland led even by 18 points (71-53) in the third period and entered the fourth quarter with a 10-point advantage (73-63).
However, the partial score in the last period was 35-15 in favor of Japan. The score was tied at 78 with four minutes left and Japan closed the deal with a big 20-10 run, getting a solid nine-point lead (89-80) two minutes before the final buzzer.
It has to be noted that the big star of Japan, Phoenix’s Yuta Watanabe, scored just four points in the game.
After this turn of events, Finland is on the brink of missing qualification having a 0-2 record, while Japan is at 1-1 together with Australia and Germany has the advantage with a 2-0 record.
PHOTO CREDIT: FIBA