As the final buzzer rang, the Levanga players on the bench ran up to the players on the floor to celebrate their dramatic 63-62 victory over the Hitachi Sunrockers on the final day of the National Basketball League regular season.
But the sad reality was, they came up short in their quest for a playoff berth by an inch. The final postseason ticket went instead to the Link Tochigi Brex, who beat the Chiba Jets 83-73 a few minutes after the Levanga's win.
Both the Levanga and Brex ended the 54-game regular season with identical 31-23 records, but the latter earned the third and last spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs on the second tiebreaker (point differential in the two team's head-to-head contests. The two drew 3-3 in their games against each other).