Greg Slaughter could not follow through on his splendid Saturday performance in the 2022-23 B.League Division II season as he was saddled with early foul trouble and ended up with just two points and four rebounds in Fukuoka’s stunning 82-100 loss to cellar dweller Fukushima, Sunday at Toyota Crown Arena.
Just a day after routing the Firebonds, the Rizing Zephyr could not find an antidote to contain Fukushima’s NBA veteran imports — 6-foot-10 Eric Murphy of Finland dropped 25 points while 6-foot-10 Josh Harrelson put up 17 points, 12 rebounds, and seven assists.
Fukuoka remained in the middle of the team standings with a 4-4 record.
Over at the Gold’s Gym Makuhari Bay Area Park Arena, Kobe Paras showed he may be close to getting to his top form, leading Chiba to a 98-88 win over Kagawa.
In just his second game back after a hamstring injury, Paras tallied 13 points on an impressive 5-of-8 shooting from the floor to help Chiba repeat over Roosevelt Adams and Kagawa.
But it was not just on offense that Paras, who connected on three triples from four attempts, shone brightly. He was also a force on defense as he had five blocked shots and two steals on top of two boards and two assists.
Adams had a quiet afternoon as he sank just one field goal out of four attempts to finish with two points.
With Fukushima’s upset win over Fukuoka, the Five Arrows are now the lone team at the bottom of the team standings. Altiri, on the other hand, improved to a 6-2 record, just a game behind league leader Koshigaya and Ehime.
At the Nishinomiya Central Gymnasium, Jordan Heading was back to his gun-slinging ways, going 4-of-8 from three-point distance to finish with 15 points.
Nagasaki, though, could not sustain their strong start which saw them lead by seven at the end of the first quarter.
The home squad Nishinomiya returned fire with a strong second quarter which saw them regain the lead that they never again relinquished as they scored a 94-78 victory to sweep the Velca.
With the loss, Velca tied the Storks in the standings with both teams having 5-3 slates.
