No retirement for Yuta Watanabe! The Japanese leader had announced that this 2023 World Cup would undoubtedly be his last competition with the national team if the latter did not obtain his ticket for the Paris Olympics.
But thanks to its success against Cape Verde (80-71), Japan finished as the best Asian nation in the competition, with 3 wins (Finland, Venezuela, Cape Verde) for 2 losses (Germany, Australia). So what to win, as for South Sudan, his ticket to Paris, next summer!
In control from the second quarter, Japan were up to 20 points ahead (73-53) in the third quarter, before going through a big period of scarcity, and getting very scared…
On a free throw from Edy Tavares, Cape Verde even came back to a single possession (74-71) 72 seconds from the end of the match. It must be said that the Japanese team had therefore only scored one small point (a free throw from Makoto Hiejima) between the 28th minute and the 38th minute of the match. Despite these ten cataclysmic offensive minutes, Japan still survived, thanks to Joshua Hawkinson, the man of the match for Japan, who scored a basket with the fault, before freeing a whole people behind the line at 3- points.
The American-Japanese is also clearly the man of the tournament for Japan, which he completes with a new performance of choice: 29 points (9/14), 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocks. Especially since he had quite a client in front, namely Edy Tavares, the MVP of the last Euroleague Final Four, limited to 11 points (3/11) and 14 rebounds.
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