WITH the first division taking a two-week break to accommodate the first window of the 2023 Fiba World Cup Asian qualifiers, the B.League second-division teams take centerstage with our Filipino bets trying their bests to pull off wins this weekend.
B.League news
Juan Gomez de Liaño will be the first out as he will try to finally help the Earthfriends Tokyo Z notch a win when they host the Ehime Orange Vikings at Ota City General Gymnasium starting on Friday.
It has been an up-and-down season for the former University of the Philippines guard, who has been averaging 5.7 points on 26-percent shooting from threes, to go with 2.6 assists and 1.9 rebounds in just 15.1 minutes of action.
In turn, Tokyo Z has lost all of its 13 assignments so far in this campaign, the last of which being a 76-55 defeat to the Koshigaya Alphas last Sunday.
The Earthfriends are hopeful that their return back home could revitalize the team, but Gomez de Liano, as well as imports Marc Eddy Norelia and Joshua Crawford, will have to triple their efforts if they want to score a win against the streaking Orange Vikings.
Despite Ehime sporting a 3-10 card, it has won two of its last three assignments behind the leadership of former Phoenix import Eugene Phelps.
That would certainly be a problem for Tokyo Z when the two teams collide at 6 p.m. on Friday and 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Aomori Wat's are also driven to stop this seven-game losing streak when they visit the Sendai 89ers (8-5) at Xebio Arena Sendai.
Holding a 1-12 record, things have really looked bleak for Aomori, especially after the humiliating 82-49 whipping it got from league leader Fighting Eagles Nagoya.
A positive for the Wat's, though, is the best game of Kemark Carino who nabbed five points and three rebounds in that outing to provide solid contributions to his side led by former TNT import Michael Craig and local Hayate Komasawa.
Still, Aomori will need more of that against Sendai, which has split its last four games and would want to finally churn out a win streak this weekend.
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