Gilas fans had a weird but fun problem this week: who do you cheer for when Dwight Ramos and AJ Edu are on opposite teams?
Japan's B.League brought two of its clubs to the SM Mall of Asia Arena for the B.League Manila Games. Gunma Crane Thunders (with AJ Edu) faced Levanga Hokkaido (with Dwight Ramos).
The results
Game 1 (Sept. 9): Gunma 98, Hokkaido 81
Game 2 (Sept. 10): Gunma 101, Hokkaido 91 in overtime
Clean sweep for Gunma.
Game 2 was the thriller
Yuma Fujii took over in overtime with seven points, including the go-ahead basket with 39.9 seconds left. Takuto Nakamura led Gunma with 25. But the star of the night might have been Hokkaido's Keisei Tominaga, who dropped 34 points, 19 of them in the third quarter.
Our Gilas boys:
Dwight Ramos: 17 points, 4 assists
AJ Edu: 9 points, 9 rebounds
Why this was a big deal
It was the first time the B.League held official league-sanctioned games between two of its teams outside Japan. It also celebrated 70 years of normalized Japan-Philippines diplomatic relations and the league's 10th anniversary.
Japanese pro hoops in Manila? Yes, please. Do it again.
