Thomas Kennedy thrived in pressure-packed games for the Yokohama B-Corsairs last season en route to the franchise's bj-league championship.
This season, his role as a go-to scorer has seen him suit up for the Shimane Susanoo Magic (10 games), followed by a 14-game stint with the NBL's Chiba Jets, reuniting with former B-Corsairs coach Reggie Geary. In February, he joined his third team of the 2013-14 basketball season, the Niigata Albirex BB — the only one of the three to advance to the postseason in either league. Kennedy averaged 18.0 points in 22 games for Niigata to wrap up the bj-league's regular season.
It's not as if bj-league and NBL team executives needed a reminder of Kennedy's polished scoring skills, but they were given one on Sunday afternoon, when he took over during Game 3, aka the mini-game tiebreaker, against the host Shinshu Brave Warriors in Chikuma, Nagano Prefecture. The University of Detroit Mercy alum sank three 3-pointers and led all players with 11 points during the 10-minute sink-or-swim mini-game that took place following the regularly scheduled Game 2.