Basketball: Utsunomiya clinches B-League title in Game 3 thriller
YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) -- Makoto Hiejima poured in 14 fourth-quarter points to lead Utsunomiya Brex to a championship-clinching 73-71 victory over the Ryukyu Golden Kings in Game 3 of the B-League basketball finals on Tuesday.
With just three points through the first three quarters, the veteran shooting guard exploded in the final period at Yokohama Arena, hitting 5-of-5 from the floor and 3-of-3 from the free-throw line.
Utsunomiya won the best-of-three series opener 81-68 on Saturday before Ryukyu evened things up with an 87-75 victory the following day.
Contesting their fourth-straight finals, the Okinawa-based Golden Kings led 51-44 going into the fourth quarter of Game 3 before Brex came back to take their first lead since the opening period at 67-66 on a three-pointer from finals MVP D.J. Newbill with 1:15 left.
Hiejima, who finished with 17 points and three assists, gave coach Zico Coronel's squad the lead for good on a corner three-pointer with 33 seconds on the clock.
Ryukyu received a lifeline when Keve Aluma was fouled on a three-point attempt with Utsunomiya up 73-70 and less than a second left. The forward miss his second free-throw, however, forcing him to intentionally miss the third in an unsuccessful attempt to score two points off a rebound.
The Utsunomiya players dedicated the team's first title since 2021-2022 to former head coach Kevin Braswell, who died aged 46 during the season in February after suffering complications from emergency heart surgery.
The team kept a framed photograph of Braswell on the bench throughout the remainder of the season, including the finals, and the players shouted his initials, "KB," for motivation during their huddles.
"We've been to funerals and cried together, and now we get to cry tears of joy," said Coronel, who started the season as Braswell's assistant. "It means the world to us to honor Kevin."
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