Japan brushed aside Taiwan 95-42 in a women’s basketball exhibition game on Saturday, the team’s first outing under new head coach Corey Gaines.
Sarah Nakamura Miller led Japan with 12 points, going 4-from-7 from three-point range, at Toyoda Gosei Memorial Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture. Anri Hoshi scored 11 points and Kokoro Tanaka 10.
Japan led 55-18 at halftime, with Tanaka and Norika Konno starring, before the world’s ninth-ranked team cruised to the victory against the 39th-ranked Taiwan.
Kokoro Tanaka (R) of Japan dribbles during a women’s basketball exhibition game against Taiwan at Toyoda Gosei Memorial Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture on June 7, 2025. (Kyodo)
The two teams will play again at the same venue on Sunday.
The 60-year-old Gaines, whose grandmother is Japanese, was an associate head coach of the men’s team under Tom Hovasse since 2022 and helped the team at the 2023 World Cup in Okinawa, as well as at last year’s Paris Olympics.
New Japan head coach Corey Gaines (2nd from R) gives instructions during a women’s exhibition game against Taiwan at Toyoda Gosei Memorial Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture on June 7, 2025. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Gaines was Japan women’s advisory coach in 2016-2017 and replaced Toru Onzuka in January after his team finished the Paris Games last summer with three defeats in the preliminary round. Japan won the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 under Hovasse.
Gaines played for several NBA teams, including the New Jersey Nets and Philadelphia 76ers, before managing the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury to a championship in 2009.
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AloJapan.com