Kobe Paras and Niigata completed their weekend sweep of Ibaraki, taking an 87-79 win for their second straight victory in the 2021-22 B.League season, Sunday at City Hall Plaza Ao-re Nagaoka.
Paras bucked early foul trouble, scoring all nine of his points in the third canto. His trey with 2:42 left in the quarter broke a 49-all deadlock and sparked a rally that gave Albirex a 60-54 lead.
Rosco Allen then took charge in the final frame, putting up 10 of his 20 points in the final 10 minutes of the contest and lifting his side to another win.
Allen also had seven points and seven rebounds for Niigata, who went up to 4-28 in the standings.
Tshilidzi Nephawe tallied 20 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists. Jeff Ayres produced 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Zen Endo got 12 points as well for Albirex.
Eric Jacobsen led the way for Ibaraki with 17 points and 11 rebounds while Marc Trasolini and Asahi Tajima added 15 and 12 points, respectively.
Javi Gomez de Liano remained on the sidelines due to an ankle injury.
The Robots fell to 6-25.
Up next for Niigata are the Utsunomiya Brex at Brex Arena on Wednesday while Ibaraki hosts Dwight Ramos next weekend.
Over at White Ring, Shinshu escaped Osaka, 87-83, to capture their fourth win in five games.
It was a well-balanced attack for the Brave Warriors, who went up to 14-17 in the standings.
Wayne Marshall led Shinshu with 21 points and seven rebounds. Meanwhile, fellow starters Josh Hawkinson and Ko Kumagai chipped in 14 and 11 points, respectively.
Leading the bench mob were Anthony McHenry and Louis Kurihara. The former produced 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting with four rebounds and three assists; on the other hand, the latter added 11 points and six rebounds.
Fil-Japanese big man Matthew Aquino did not play in the contest.
DJ Newbill led Osaka with 21 points, five assists, three rebounds, a steal, and a block. Makoto Kinoshita added 18 points from off the bench.
Evessa dropped to 13-18.
Up next for Shinshu is Nagoya on Wednesday at Dolphin’s Arena.
