THE NUMBERS

Tsinghua 86, Waseda 71 (27-21, 23-17, 20-19, 16-14).

Tsinghua never trailed and led by as many as 16. Yang Kaiwen had 21 points and 17 rebounds, and Shi Kui added 17 with 9 assists. Tsinghua outrebounded Waseda 54-34 and pulled 20 offensive rebounds — the most by any team at AUBL26 — recovering 44.4% of their own misses and turning them into 17 second-chance points to Waseda's 3. Shin Matsumoto went 13-of-13 from the free throw line, the most free throws anyone has made in an AUBL game.

GAME RECAP

Tsinghua won Group A with a wire-to-wire 86-71 win over Waseda, taking the top seed and a quarterfinal against UP.

The 1st quarter belonged to the free throw line. Waseda made 5 field goals and still trailed by only 6, going 10-of-11 from the stripe - 9 of which came from Shin Matsumoto (松本 秦), who ended the quarter with 11.

Tsinghua pulled away in the 2nd, outscoring Waseda 23-17 to take a 50-38 lead into the break. At the half, Yang Kaiwen (杨凯文) had 15 points and 9 rebounds, and Tsinghua had 11 offensive rebounds.

Waseda matched Tsinghua through the 3rd and lost the quarter by a single point. Matsumoto fouled out in the 4th, the lowest-scoring quarter of the game with only 30 points between the two teams. Tsinghua shot 5-of-17 from the field and missed all 7 of their 3s, Waseda shot 3-of-14.

Yang Kaiwen ended with 21 points and 17 rebounds, the most anyone has grabbed in a game at AUBL26, and Shi Kui (石奎) added 17 points and 9 assists, matching the best passing game of his AUBL career.

Eiji Shimoyama (下山 瑛司) played all 40 minutes for Waseda, finishing with 19 points and 11 assists. Matsumoto finished with 21 points on 3-of-11 from the field and 13-of-13 from the line, the most free throws anyone has made in an AUBL game.

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