The Hiroshima Dragonflies are crowned as the 2024-25 EASL champions after taking down the Taoyuan Pauian Pilots in an exciting finale in Macau.
MACAU—In back-to-back years, a Japan B.LEAGUE team has been named champion of the East Asia Super League (EASL).
The Hiroshima Dragonflies completed a near-perfect season after closing out the Taoyuan Pauian Pilots, 72-68, in the 2025 EASL Finals Sunday at the Studio City Event Center here.
Dwayne Evans came up big in the clutch for the B.LEAGUE champion Dragonflies, who had lost momentum in the final minutes of regulation.
The American import found an easy basket from a perfect inbound play with 24.7 seconds left, which gave Hiroshima the lead for good, 69-68. Evans then locked up Taoyuan star Lu Chun-Hsiang, leading to a shot clock violation.
For the next play, Evans was fouled on the inbound but would split his free throws, giving the Pilots a final chance to tie or win the game.
Ryu Watanabe, however, would go on to seal the win with a steal and layup after another clutch stop against Chun-Hsiang.
Evans led the way for Hiroshima with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Kerry Blackshear Jr. added 13 markers, while Keijiro Mitani added 10 in the championship victory.
Chun-Hsiang did all he could for Taoyuan with 20 points in the loss. Trevor Graham backed him up with 16.
The Dragonflies will take home the $1 million prize for the win. Meanwhile, the Pilots will take home $500K for their second-place finish.
Hiroshima's win allows Japan to pad its lead as the country with most EASL titles with four, even accounting for when the league was primarily a pre-season tournament.
The Dragonflies are the third B.LEAGUE club to win an EASL title, joining the Chiba Jets (2017 Super 8 & 2024 season) and the Ryukyu Golden Kings (2018 The Terrific 12).