Jarrett Culver scores Sendai's last three baskets in a 70-68 win at the SunRockers as Nagoya stay unbeaten

The SunRockers led 68-66 with 3:41 left, in front of 7,723 at Toyota Arena Tokyo. They did not score again. Jarrett Culver tied the game with a jumper in the lane with 2:45 to play, and after Nathan Boothe stole the ball from Josh Hawkinson, Culver hit a jumper with 41 seconds left. The Sendai 89ers won 70-68 on Sunday.

Culver scored 32 points with 10 rebounds and made four of his 10 threes. Sendai have now won three in a row and are 4-3. The SunRockers fell to 4-3 as well, after two straight losses.

Around the B.League Premier on Sunday, the Toyama Grouses won 94-74 at Altiri Chiba, the Nagoya Diamond Dolphins beat the Ibaraki Robots 90-78 to stay perfect at 5-0, the Akita Northern Happinets won 82-71 at Utsunomiya, and the SeaHorses Mikawa won 89-81 at Kyoto.

SunRockers 68, Sendai 70

Tokyo won the second quarter 18-6 and led 36-24 with 5:19 left in the half, their biggest lead. It was 42-30 at half-time. Sendai came back in the third quarter. Down 50-40, they scored 10 straight points: a Culver three, a Jake Layman basket, a Culver basket and a Layman three tied it 50-50 with 2:35 left in the quarter. Culver's three with 31 seconds left tied it again at 55, and Donte Grantham's basket with three seconds left gave Tokyo a 57-55 lead after three.

The fourth quarter went back and forth. Boothe's three put Sendai up 60-57, Rawle Alkins put Tokyo back in front 61-60, and Hawkinson's three made it 68-66. Then Tokyo missed its last six shots. Grantham's three with four seconds left was the last of them, and Culver took the rebound.

Sergio El Darwich had 11 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists for Sendai. Alkins and Daiki Tanaka scored 12 each for Tokyo.

Scoring

Sendai: Jarrett Culver 32, Jake Layman 12, Sergio El Darwich 11, Nathan Boothe 8, Seiya Funyu 5, Kazuma Okajima 2, Yusei Sugiura 0, Shota Watanabe 0, Ryota Hanzawa 0, Avi Koki Schafer 0.

SunRockers: Rawle Alkins 12, Daiki Tanaka 12, Josh Hawkinson 11, Bryson Williams 10, Donte Grantham 8, Leo Vendrame 7, Ibu Yamazaki 5, Sogo Yamagiwa 3, Reiya Nozaki 0.

By quarter: SunRockers 24, 18, 15, 11. Sendai 24, 6, 25, 15.

Altiri Chiba 74, Toyama 94

Chiba led 36-29 after two Dererk Pardon free throws with 7:05 left in the second quarter. Toyama answered with 11 straight points. Braian Angola scored, Thirdy Ravena hit a three, Haruaki Tanaka's three gave Toyama the lead at 37-36, and Ravena hit another to make it 40-36. Toyama led for the rest of the game, 49-42 at half-time and 74-60 after three, and the margin reached 20 in the last minute.

Darral Willis Jr. led Toyama with 27 points and 10 rebounds. Aamir Simms scored 17 and Angola had 15 with eight assists. Seiya Ando scored 16 for Chiba, who are 2-5. Kai Sotto did not play for Chiba. The crowd at Chibagin Arena was 4,752.

Scoring

Toyama: Darral Willis Jr. 27, Aamir Simms 17, Braian Angola 15, Thirdy Ravena 12, Haruaki Tanaka 9, Daichi Kuzuhara 5, Faraz Rashid 4, Yuzo Okada 3, Naoki Uto 2, Kazuki Miyamoto 0, Yoshiyuki Nozaki 0.

Altiri Chiba: Seiya Ando 16, Alex Davis 15, Dererk Pardon 14, D.J. Newbill 10, Kei Sugimoto 9, Takaaki Kida 4, Kotetsu Kurokawa 3, Leon Watanabe 3, Blake Aoki 0.

By quarter: Altiri Chiba 21, 21, 18, 14. Toyama 21, 28, 25, 20.

Ibaraki 78, Nagoya 90

Nagoya scored 21 of the first 24 points and led 21-3 with 4:53 left in the first quarter. Ibaraki came all the way back. The Robots won the second quarter 21-11 and led 46-36 late in the half. The lead changed hands five times in the third quarter, and Nagoya led 63-60 going into the fourth.

Nagoya then scored the first 10 points of the quarter to lead 73-60. Aaron Henry scored 12 of his 19 points in the last 4:04. Takumi Saito finished with 21 points and 10 assists, and Scott Eatherton scored 20. Noboru Hasegawa scored 17 for Ibaraki, who are 0-7.

Scoring

Nagoya: Takumi Saito 21, Scott Eatherton 20, Aaron Henry 19, Taketo Kato 13, Ryan Luther 8, Keita Imamura 4, Taito Nakahigashi 3, Isaiah Murphy 2, Hiyuu Ozawa 0, Tenketsu Harimoto 0, Jake Koki Holtz 0, Quentin Millora-Brown 0.

Ibaraki: Noboru Hasegawa 17, Hirotaka Yoshii 13, Tim Soares 13, Finn Delany 12, Kohei Fukuzawa 8, Ray Parks Jr. 6, Reo Maeda 5, Ru Jingaoka 2, Hugh Watanabe 2, Kento Akama 0.

By quarter: Ibaraki 25, 21, 14, 18. Nagoya 28, 11, 24, 27.

The other two games

Utsunomiya 71, Akita 82. Akita went ahead 45-43 with 5:19 left in the third quarter and never trailed again. Mark Smith scored 29 with 10 assists, and Yanni Wetzell scored 24, nine of them in the last 3:14. Akita's biggest lead was 14. Trey Kell III and Gavin Edwards scored 15 each for Utsunomiya, in front of 4,401.

Akita: Mark Smith 29, Yanni Wetzell 24, Baiqing Zhao 9, Reid Travis 9, Shigehiro Taguchi 6, Raita Akaho 3, Troy Murphy Jr. 2, Taiyo Motoda 0, Yori Iwaya 0.

Utsunomiya: Trey Kell III 15, Gavin Edwards 15, Otis Frazier III 11, Atsuya Ogawa 9, Makoto Hiejima 7, Hayate Arakawa 6, Kosuke Takeuchi 4, Isaac Fotu 4, Yusuke Endo 0, Shinji Takashima 0, Seiji Ikaruga 0.

By quarter: Utsunomiya 18, 16, 15, 22. Akita 21, 18, 17, 26.

Kyoto 81, Mikawa 89. Kyoto never led. Mikawa went ahead 4-2 early in the first quarter and led by as many as 13 in the second quarter. Davante Gardner scored 22 for Mikawa and Sean O'Mara 17. Charles Jackson had 28 points and 10 rebounds for Kyoto, who fell to 5-2.

Mikawa: Davante Gardner 22, Sean O'Mara 17, Yudai Nishida 15, Aaron White 13, Yoshiaki Kubota 10, Satoshi Nagano 6, Thomas Kennedy 4, Ryogo Sumino 2, Yutaro Suda 0.

Kyoto: Charles Jackson 28, Angelo Caloiaro 12, Leon Shibuta 11, Michael Phillips 8, Demetre Rivers 8, Satoru Maeta 6, Ryuichi Kishimoto 5, Shuma Nishibe 3, Kanta Mizuno 0, Hayato Kawashima 0, Ryunosuke Watanabe 0, Mone Alex Hall 0.

By quarter: Kyoto 14, 22, 19, 26. Mikawa 25, 21, 18, 25.

What is next

Hiroshima are 6-0 at the top of the table, with Nagoya and San-en both 5-0. Five games are played on Monday, October 12: Yokohama against the Chiba Jets, Shiga against Shinshu, Osaka against Alvark Tokyo, Saga against Gunma and Nagasaki against Kobe. The next full round starts on Friday, October 16.