EASL: Bay Area secures third place
Andrew Nicholson. EASL PHOTO
OKINAWA — Bay Area took down home bet Ryukyu, 90-70, to salvage a third-place finish in the East Asia Super League (EASL) Champions Week here.
Myles Powell and Andrew Nicholson again figured as the Dragons’ one-two punch, delivering 29 and 18 points, respectively, in the contest at Okinawa Arena.
“I think my team got better and better as the tournament went on and this was by far our best game,” said head coach Brian Goorjian.
“The (Philippine Basketball Association) was tremendous for us and really helped us prepare here,” he added.
Filipino-American guard Sedrick Barefield had 17 points and six rebounds, while Hayden Blankley tossed in eight more in the effort that had the EASL franchise pocketing a USD50,000 prize (about P3 million).
Three-time PBA Best Import Allen Durham had 19 points and seven rebounds to lead all of Ryukyu, while fellow reinforcement Josh Duncan added 15 points.
Hayato Maki added 10 in the scoring effort while Carl Tamayo finished with just two points in limited minutes in preparation for the resumption of the B.League season where the Golden Kings play the Hiroshima Dragonflies, the club that recruited 7-foot-3 big man Kai Sotto.
Tamayo and Sotto, who last played against each other in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines’ juniors division, square off on March 8.
