Aishin wins JBL Championship title 2008-09

Aishin - Hitachi S. 79-59
Aishin SeaHorses became the Winner of JBL 20008/2009 after the win over Hitachi 79:59 in Game 4. The winner of the Regualr Season was led by David Young (196-G/F-81, college: N.C.Central) who poured in 20 points. Henderson-Sakuragi nailed 17 points and had 12 rebounds, while Takeuchi Kosuke netted 15. Rice Lamar finished the night with 20 points and 11 rebounds in the losing effort.

With a chance to repeat as Japan Basketball League champions, the Aisin Sea Horses ran wild on Hitachi on Wednesday night at Tokyo's Yoyogi No. 2 Gym.
The Sea Horses closed out the best-of-five final series with a 79-59 blowout in Game 4 to claim their second straight title and fourth overall.
Aisin, which had repeat titles in 2003 and '04, won by riding a different option in first-year forward David Young, who broke out for 20 points--including 5-for-7 shooting from 3-point range.
Aisin's big horse, J.R. Sakuragi (206-C-76, agency: Paris Global Sports, college: UCLA)--a naturalized Japanese citizen--added 17 points and 12 rebounds to cap a season in which the Sea Horses swept the All-Japan title and the JBL championship for the second consecutive time.
'We didn't want to think about playing tomorrow. We went out with the mindset that this would be the last game,' said Aisin coach Kimikazu Suzuki .
'I think the players gave it everything they had tonight. They did a great job.'
The Sea Horses finished the regular season atop the standings, and the Sunrockers were second. Hitachi was making its first appearance in the finals and had no answer when Young started knocking down 3-pointers.
'The fact that he was hitting those shots really got to us,' Hitachi coach Shuji Ono said of Young's performance.
'He's a guy who likes to drive to the basket, so when those 3s started falling, it hurt us.'
Suzuki said the Sea Horses were ideal with the ball. 'Our offense was perfect tonight,' he said. 'We were able to score on drives, with outside shots and post-ups. We don't lose when we play like this.'
Kosuke Takeuchi (205-C/F-85) had 15 points and nine boards for Aisin and was named the MVP of the playoffs as well making the regular-season Best V. Sakuragi and Shinsuke Kashiwagi (183-G-81), who had 14 points and four assists, were also named Best V.
Kosuke Takeuchi didn't outplay his twin brother Joji, who matched him with 15 points and added 12 rebounds, but he brought home the title.
Sakuragi sparked a first-quarter 20-4 run that put the Sea Horses ahead by as many as 17 points in the first half. He was too much to handle in the paint and that opened the court up for Young.
The Sea Horses fed the post early and Sakuragi ate Hitachi's Lamar Rice (203-F-82, college: Georgetown, KY) up. Sakuragi had 10 points and drew two fouls on Rice to send the Hitachi forward to the bench with 4:41 to play in the quarter.
That's when the Sea Horses went on a five-minute run, going from one point down to 17 points ahead. Only a last-second 3-pointer by Taiji Sakai ended the run and left the Sunrockers down 40-27 at the break.