Fujitsu players who won a come-from-behind victory centered on Machida (uniform number 10) in the Toyota Boshoku match on the 3rd.
Fujitsu Red Wave has decided to advance to the semi-finals in the playoffs to decide the champion of this season’s basketball women’s W league. Fujitsu has reached the fifth place in the regular season in the playoffs that started on the 2nd due to the decrease in the number of games due to the corona. In the first round, he defeated Hitachi High-Tech, which ranked 8th, 87-71, and in the quarterfinals on the 3rd, he defeated Toyota Boshoku, which ranked 4th, 71-61. From the 9th, in the semi-final of the two-game first-come-first-served system, which will be held at Yoyogi No. 2 Gymnasium in Tokyo, we will face the same-ranked ENEOS.
It was a semi-final advance where the efforts of the players and related parties who continued to improve their team strength by looking forward without being unlucky were fruitful.
Later this season, the team was swayed by the influence of the new Corona. The league match was suspended in January and February due to the spread of the infection. It resumed in March, and although it fought two games against ENEOS, positive players were confirmed in the team and the opponent team, and the four games until the final round of the league disappeared. As a result, they couldn’t improve their points and fell from 2nd place to 5th place. The playoffs started in the first round, and the pressure of a one-shot game, which would be defeated if the quarter-finals were lost, was added.
It was difficult to maintain motivation for a month until the playoffs, but captain Rui Machida (29) said, “I’m worried because I was grasping the flow of making our baskets in hard practice. There was no”. Yuki Miyazawa (28) scored 27 points, the most in the team, with five 3-point shots in the first round. Machida also marked 17 assists and won a great victory.
In the Toyota Boshoku match, where they competed for a solid defense in the league match, they couldn’t score until 5 minutes after the start in the third quarter with a 9-point lead, and on the contrary, they were 7 points behind. However, as Monica Okoye (23) said, “I believed that our flow would come,” the players did not lose their confidence.
Shinozaki (middle) who scored 10 points only in the final quarter = Tokkei Security Hiratsuka General Gymnasium in Hiratsuka City, (c) W League
In the final quarter, Okoye and Miyazawa scored 16 consecutive points, including a 3-point shot, and they turned around again at once. Deputy captain Mio Shinozaki (30) is active with 10 points in this quarter alone. All the players gathered together and took the victory.
In the ENEOS match from the 9th, those who win two will advance to the final. “ENEOS is a team that knows how to win, but we have evolved in these two games,” Okoye said. Machida said, “The feelings of the fans who come to the venue in the corona and the people who support us have reached us. With that feeling in mind, I want to win the semi-finals firmly.” The momentum is likely to accelerate further. (Eiji Yasuda)
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Fujitsu Red Wave is a basketball girl based in Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki. Despite being swayed by the corona, the players continue to challenge themselves to become the best in Japan in the W League. We will follow the struggle of the team rooted in the community on an irregular basis.
