With a trip to the Final Four on the line, the Yokohama B-Corsairs and Akita Northern Happinets knew nothing would be easy in Friday's high-stakes contest. And both teams displayed a sense of urgency from start to finish in Game 2 of the bj-league's Eastern Conference semifinal series at Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium.
But the Happinets, pushed to the brink of exhaustion, by inimitable bench boss Kazuo Nakamura, played a better, smarter game than they did in the series opener.
The result? Akita defeated Yokohama 82-69.