Professional basketball club Anyang Chungkwanjang was unable to overcome a deficit and suffered its first loss in the East Asian Super League.The defending champions suffered their first loss of the tournament, falling 69-102 to Japan’s Chiba Jets in Group A of the East Asian Super League at Anyang Gymnasium on Wednesday.With the loss in their final home game of the group stage, ChungKwanJang fell to 2-1 in Group A and lost ground to Chiba, who have won four straight games.With a seven-game losing streak in the KBL regular season, Chung was unable to find the momentum to revitalize the team.

The Jets, the first-place team in the 2022-2023 Japan B League regular season, started three long players at the same time – Xavier Cooks, John Mooney, and Ayla Brown – and dominated under the basket. Jung was unable to find a replacement after Omari Spellman left the team due to injury. That left Darryl Monroe (14 points, 11 rebounds) as the lone foreign player to defend the paint.

Ziva’s Mooney scored 20 points and pulled down 15 rebounds in the first half alone.Down 8-29 in the rebounding battle in the first half, Chung went into halftime trailing 39-49, although they were countered by a pair of dunks from Lens Abando (17 points) and mid-range baskets from Choi Sung-won (7 points) and Kim Kyung-won (11 points).”We were expecting a rebounding disadvantage because Monroe was the only foreign player,” said head coach Kim Sang-sik in a halftime interview, adding, “We will strengthen our rebounding in the second half.”However, the height and size disadvantage 스포츠토토존 was not overcome in the third quarter, and the score widened to 53-77.