He’d decided to rest some regulars, a couple of whom had been injured, so he could count on them for next week’s league season-ending championship and the Far East tournament Feb. 20-25 on Guam.

What coach Steve Boyd didn’t count on was seeing his Seoul American boys basketball team’s 33-game regular-season winning streak end, along with a run of 15 straight wins over Yongsan International-Seoul since the latter school opened in 2004.

“No excuses; they deserved to win, they outplayed us,” Boyd said after the Guardians outscored the Falcons 16-8 in the second quarter en route to an historic 45-39 win over Seoul American on Friday, the first for the Guardians over the Falcons in school history.

Senior Tomiwa Akinbayo posted his customary double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds. But no other Falcon scored more than four points, something “that’s never happened before,” Boyd said.

The team’s downfall, he insisted, was poor field-goal shooting, not so much holding out players such as senior Bryant McCray, who “could probably have played, but I didn’t want to take any chances.”

Seoul American (19-7 overall, 14-1 league) had already clinched the Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference Division I regular-season title, and with it the top seed in the KAIAC D-I tournament next Friday and Saturday at Seoul Foreign School.

“It’s just one of those things. YIS-S played a good game,” Boyd said. “You can’t shoot 29 percent from the floor and expect to win. Sooner or later, those situations catch up with you.”

Raymond Lee led the Guardians with 13 points, Chris Yoo added 12 and Jon Bai just missed a double-double with 11 points and eight boards.

Black pours it on, Eagles keep on winningPlaying senior Jen Black at guard continues to agree with coach Sarah Richardson and Robert D. Edgren’s girls.

Black scored 27 points and Xala Sledge posted a double-double of 17 points and 15 boards as the Eagles won for the third time in four games with Black in the lineup, 58-44 on Friday over E.J. King in a DODDS Japan contest. The Eagles are 3-10; they began the season 0-9.

“I don’t know what I’d do without my Jen,” Richardson said. “She moves the ball well, the kids respond to her. She’s really needed out there on the court.”

Kinnick’s boys edge CAJ in OTWith Far East tournaments rapidly approaching, schools around the Pacific are playing their final home games of the season, which means delayed starts as players and their parents are honored before tipoff.

One of those seniors, Felix Salter, proved to be a hero for Nile C. Kinnick’s boys, hitting a foul shot with 1.7 seconds left to send Friday’s Kanto Plain clash with Christian Academy Japan into overtime. The Red Devils then prevailed 53-50.

Migrated