Sotto bags double-double in Hiroshima rout of Ibaraki

MANILA, Philippines — Kai Sotto finished with his first double-double in the Japan B. League in the Hiroshima Dragonflies' 90-72 rout of the Ibaraki Robots in the 2022-23 Japan B. League season at the Adastria Mito Arena on Saturday.

Sotto, in just his third game with Hiroshima, finished with 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting to go along with 12 rebounds and three blocks.

The 7'3" big man made the most of his 23 minutes in action.

Hiroshima are winners of two straight games to improve to 30-11 in the standings.

Elsewhere, Kiefer Ravena and the Shiga Lakes snapped a four-game slide with a 96-87 win over the Toyama Grouses at the Toyama City Gymnasium.

In just their sixth win of the year, Kiefer finished with six points, three assists, two rebounds, and two steals.

Ivan Buva paced the Lakes with 25 points and eight boards.

Carl Tamayo, for his part, tallied nine points and four rebounds in the Ryukyu Golden Kings' 81-66 drubbing of the Shinshu Brave Warriors.

The Golden Kings improved to 32-9.

In the other games, Matthew Wright couldn't help the Kyoto Hannaryz to victory as they stumbled against the Chiba Jets in overtime, 93-91.

Wright finished with nine points, nine rebounds, and nine assists in the loss. The Filipino reinforcement was able to score a clutch bucket with 42 seconds left to make it a two-point game but Kyoto could not convert in the end game.

Kyoto now sports a 16-25 slate.

Absorbing losses were Dwight Ramos and Thirdy Ravena as their respective teams fell short.

Ramos and the Levanga Hokkaido were tripped by the Seahorses Mikawa, 92-82. Ramos finished with 11 points, seven boards, and five assists as they were dropped to 11-30.

Thirdy, for his part, saw his double-double go down the drain as he finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds in San-En NeoPhoenix's 82-74 loss to the Sendai 89ers at the Toyohashi City Gymnasium.