24 hours since dealing iECO a humiliating 28-point beatdown, the Ryukyu Golden Kings gave the Green Warriors another punch in the gut.
The ball club from Japan has booted the Filipino team out of The Terrific 12 cagefest after picking up an impressive 74-59 victory over the Xinjiang Flying Tigers, Wednesday night at the Studio City Event Center in Macau.
The Flying Tigers also bowed out of the competition with the loss, as the Golden Kings swept Group C with a 2-0 card. They are now bound for the semifinals on Saturday, and will face the top-seeded team of Group A.
Group A has China’s Zhejiang Guangsha Lions, Japan’s Nagoya Diamond Dolphins, and Chinese Taipei’s Yulon Luxgen Dinos. Zhejiang and Nagoya will slug it out tomorrow, Thursday, to seal the semis match with Ryukyu.
Reinforcement Josh Scott towed Ryukyu with 23 points and 14 rebounds. Ryouma Hashimoto contributed 17 points, and Ryuichi Hashimoto provided 14 markers along with three assists, two rebounds, and two steals.
Fan Ziming led Xinjiang with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
Al Jefferson arrived Wednesday afternoon just in time for the match, but for reasons yet to be known, the former NBA veteran did not see action – Jefferson wasn’t even anywhere inside the Studio City Event Center.
Given Ryukyu’s semis entry, Thursday’s game between Xinjiang and iECO has no bearing.
