Sendai 89ers

Latest results

Standing

Football team

Club · Japan · B League

«Niners»

240 Matches

92 wins

148 losses

18468–19262 Points

−794 Difference

77.0 Average per match

Form L W W L L L

The Tohoku Derby carries most of the weight on the 89ers' calendar, a running rivalry against the Yamagata Wyverns, Iwate Big Bulls and Akita Northern Happinets that treats every meeting between the region's four clubs as a measure of local standing. Sendai's closest rival within that group is Yamagata, close enough in distance that transfers cross the divide directly, as when guard Taiki Terazawa moved there on loan in 2023.

The '89' in the club's name has nothing to do with a founding date. It marks 1889, the year Sendai was incorporated as a city, and the reference gave the team its nickname, the Niners. The club itself came later, entering competition in 2005 and settling into the B.League once Japan restructured its professional game. It has never dropped as far as the third tier, but it has moved between the top two: the 89ers won the B2 East Division in the 2019-20 season to reach the top flight, slipped back down, then won the B2 playoffs in 2022 to return for the 2022-23 season. A national title has stayed out of reach in both the old bj League and the current B.League.

Eric Jacobsen's spell with the club stands out on the playing side, a stretch in which he averaged 17.7 points and 9.3 rebounds a game. Dan Tacheny now runs the team from the bench. Off the court, the 89ers entered a capital partnership with Kasumigaseki Capital in November 2023, positioning the club ahead of the league's planned move to the B.Premier structure in 2026.

Home games are played at Xebio Arena Sendai, which holds 4,002 for basketball and allows roughly 1,000 more standing, in a city that treats the derby weekends against its Tohoku neighbours as the fixtures worth clearing an evening for.

Fixtures and results

3 May	B League	Gunma Crane Thunders A	86:87	L
2 May	B League	Gunma Crane Thunders A	82:83	L
26 Apr	B League	Yokohama B-Corsairs H	75:86	L
25 Apr	B League	Yokohama B-Corsairs H	100:94	W
22 Apr	B League	Koshigaya Alphas H	102:78	W
19 Apr	B League	Toyama Grouses A	89:92	L

Levanga Hokkaido

Sendai 89ers

Yokohama B-Corsairs

Sun Rockers Shibuya

B League

Group stage · Eastern Conference