The worst has happened to Kiefer Ravena and Shiga.
The Lakes were dealt a 69-85 beatdown by Matthew Wright and Kyoto to close out the 2022-23 B.League elimination round on Sunday at Kyoto City Gymnasium.
Entering the final day, Shiga and Kyoto were knotted with 14-45 records.
The Lakes needed to defeat the Hannaryz in order to avoid relegation. They held the tiebreaker over the Grouses.
However, Shiga lost while Toyama earned a 95-89 win over Yokohama to remain in B1.
Also relegated to B2 is Niigata.
Kiefer tallied eight points and six assists in the loss as imports Ivan Buva, Kelvin Martin, and DeQuan Jones did the heavy lifting for the Lakes. Their status with Shiga now remains up in the air due to the demotion.
Matthew Wright, meanwhile, produced eight points and nine rebounds.
Meanwhile, Kai Sotto’s Hiroshima, Bobby Ray Parks’ Nagoya, and Carl Tamayo’s Ryukyu are headed to the playoffs which begins next week.
Hiroshima defeated Ryukyu, 73-70, at Hiroshima Sun Plaza Hall to close out their elims run with a 41-18 record.
Sotto only played 14 minutes in the game for three points and three rebounds while Tamayo played 23 minutes for 11 points.
The Dragonflies will face top seed Chiba (53-47) in the best-of-three quarterfinals.
The Golden Kings (48-12), meanwhile, take on the Diamond Dolphins (43-17).
Nagoya ended the elims with a 73-63 win over Tokyo at Yoyogi National Stadium 1st gymnasium with Parks remaining on the sidelines.
Thirdy Ravena’s San-En ended their season at 10th place with a 23-37 record.
