TOKYO – Penn State men's basketball alumnus Tom Hovasse '89 guided his Japan Olympic women's basketball team to a spot in the quarterfinal round as his squad defeated Nigeria 102-83 Sunday night.
Hovasse and Japan finished second in Group B with a 2-1 group-play record and will move on to the quarterfinal round that is set for Tuesday night into Wednesday morning (ET). Japan opened the 2020 Olympic Games with a 74-70 win over France before falling to Team USA, 86-69, in its other Group B matchups.
Hovasse is serving as the head coach of Japan for the 2020 Tokyo games after serving as an assistant coach during the 2016 Rio games. Hovasse was named the first foreign-born head coach of the Japanese National Team in 2017.
Hovasse was a first team all-conference performer at Penn State who ranks No. 12 on Penn State's all-time scoring leaders list with 1,459 career points. He played for the Nittany Lions from 1985-1989, earning first team All-Atlantic 10 honors as a senior in 1989. Hovasse went on to play professionally for a number of years, making several stops overseas and seeing time with the NBA's Atlanta Hawks during the 1994-95 season. He has spent the last 10-plus years coaching, with a majority of his coaching career coming in Japan and a brief stint as an assistant coach with the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury.
Quarterfinal matchups will be announced following the conclusion of group play games Monday morning.
