Tokyo Haneda beats Samsung Life Insurance, which struggled, and the Futures League final arrives first
Jul 09, 2025
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Japan's Haneda Bikis won the Futures League final, which has been upgraded to an international competition since this year.
Tokyo Haneda won the semifinal against South Korea's Samsung Life Insurance 70:62 in the '2025 TicketLink WKBL Futures League in Busan' held at Sajik Indoor Gymnasium in Busan on the 9th, winning all five games starting from the preliminary round.
Samsung Life Insurance made considerable efforts, but the difference between skills and physical strength was inevitable. Still, Samsung Life defeated a high-quality Japanese university selection team in the preliminary round, and it can be said that the Korean team's pride was kept, with new players showing their potential in the game.
Even before the game, the game was clearly not expected to be easy. Although Tokyo Haneda is a Japanese second division team last season, it can be said that it is a strong team that has been automatically promoted to the first division in the upcoming season, ranking first with an overwhelming winning rate. In addition, it is still in the stage of preparing for the season in terms of tactics and physical strength, but all the main players have come forward.
On top of that, Japan's women's basketball ranks ninth overall in the FIBA rankings and third in Asia after Australia (2nd) and China (4th), but the difference between Korea (14th) is quite large at present as it is always on par with the two teams. It is certainly a considerable struggle for Samsung Life Insurance, which has only six available resources, to catch up to a three-point gap against such a team until the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Tokyo Haneda began to take control from the bottom of the goal with the Nigerian center Aibe Kichamso, which is 1m85. On top of that, he led with a comfortable lead with the rapid breakthrough of short guards such as Saori Yoshida and Ayumi Chiba.
Samsung Life Insurance, which failed to score for more than four minutes due to the opponent's momentum at the beginning of the first quarter, began to unravel the game when Lee Ye-na's under-the-goal shot exploded. On top of that, Lim Kyu-ri and Kim Ah-reum's three points continued to explode, finishing the first half 28-35 without further widening the score.
After entering the third quarter, as the opponent rested Chikamso and operated a small lineup, Samsung Life began to actively break through the basket, and Japanese guard Nanami Hamanishi, who was selected in the Asian quarter, added a surprise breakthrough or active under-the-basket pass. In addition, Lim Kyu-ri's third three-run shot exploded right after the start of the fourth quarter, and Samsung Life followed closely to 50-53.
Tokyo Haneda, who was also embarrassed by Samsung Life's somewhat strong defense, escaped the crisis with a double-digit lead again after the start of the fourth quarter with Yoshida's steal score and Chikamso's two free throws added to it. Chicamso led 45-33 in rebounding, with 18 points and Yoshida and Chiba leading the offense with 15 and 12 points, respectively.
Samsung Life Insurance made eight three-point shots, especially Lim Gyu-ri's impressive performance of scoring 11 points, proving its clear competitiveness among Sixmen ahead of this season. Hamanishi is also expected to form a high-quality guard squad along with Jo Su-ah this coming season.
Coach Mikiko Haneda Hagiwara of Tokyo said, `Samsung Life seemed to have prepared quite a lot on the defensive screen, and it was not an easy game because it came out tough, but I'm happy to win. The screen was especially impressive when there was no ball and we deserved to learn"It was highly appreciated. "It wasn't easy playing tight games with a small number of people, but it was definitely a good experience for the candidate players to do step-ups next season," said Samsung Life Insurance coach Lee Mi-sun.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
