There was only one winning team Saturday night. But, clearly, the bj-league is starting to win the hearts of basketball fans around Japan.

News photo Osaka's Lynn Washington (44) goes up for a rebound during Saturday night's bj-league season opener against Tokyo at Ariake Colosseum. The defending champion Evessa beat the Apache 94-70. YOSHIAKI MIURA PHOTO

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A league-record crowd of 9,170 spectators showed up for the season-opening game at Ariake Colosseum, where reigning league champion Osaka Evessa downed the Tokyo Apache 94-70.

"This was a great event," Apache coach Joe Bryant said, flashing a smile. "A lot of people were here."

As the final second ticked off the game clock, the ball was in Evessa power forward Lynn Washington's hands. The league's 2005-06 MVP dribbled the ball slowly and fired up a shot off the backboard as the buzzer sounded.

That, in itself, was a big, symbolic statement.

The Evessa never trailed.

After the victory, Osaka coach Kensaku Tennichi commended his players' strong effort.

"We had a lot fast breaks and played good defense throughout the game. We could play the game we wanted to exhibit," said Tennichi, who called the large crowd a pleasant surprise and good exposure for the sport.

He added: "We want to do whatever it takes to make fans enjoy (the game) and we showed our best on the floor."

Washington, who scored a team-high 17 points, was one of six Osaka players in double figures.

Small forward Kazuya Hatano had 16, David Palmer added 15 and Masashi Joho, Matt Lottich and Jeff Newton contributed 14 apiece.

Newton's exceptional timing and positioning on defense keyed his eye-popping five steals. He also had a game-best 12 rebounds.

Taketo Aoki led the Apache with four steals and scored 11. Teammate John "Helicopter" Humphrey, last season's scoring champion, poured in 20 and Nick Billings added 16.

In other action Saturday, the expansion Toyama Grouses won their first-ever bj-league game, topping the host Saitama Broncos 102-88.

The deciding factor in this game was, well, fourth-quarter scoring, when Tokyo was outscored 31-13. The Evessa did so with remarkable efficiency -- 4-for-5 on 3-point range, 5-for-7 on 2-pointers and 9-for-11 at the charity stripe.

"In today's game we played good basketball, and good defense, but we still have a long way to go, so we want to keep trying hard," Hatano said.

The Evessa's well-paced offense created good scoring chances inside and out, leaving players with good looks on the perimeter. As a result, Osaka finished 10-for-20 on 3-point attempts compared to Tokyo's 3-for-13.

The Apache hurt their cause at the free-throw line with a 15-for-25 performance

"When we play good defense and made them (the Evessa) turn the ball over, we went down to the other basket and turned it over again," Bryant lamented.

"So I think what really beat us was points off of turnovers. We had 18 turnovers, and they probably scored on every one of those turnovers."

Nakanishi was equally frustrated.

"This is a disappointing result for us," he said, "but I think we open a new path by playing in front of close to 10,000 people. We Apache (players) did not play a good game and Osaka was playing on their pace throughout the game.

"Once we shrunk the deficit down to six points in the third quarter, that was when we had our game. If we play that kind of aggressive play, we are going to have a different result tomorrow."

The Evessa took the game's first lead on Hatano's inside bucket and never trailed, leaving the court with a 48-37 halftime advantage.

Osaka clung to a 63-57 lead entering the final period.

Solid numbers from beyond the 3-point arc kept the Evessa from ever losing their offensive rhythm for long stretches.

For every Apache basket, it seemed the Evessa would drop two.

Tokyo trimmed the lead to 66-61 with eight minutes left in the game on a Kohei Aoki layup, but the champs from Kansai never backed down.

The Evessa used a 14-0 spurt to increase the lead to 75-61, capped by two Newton free throws with 6:19 left.

Overall, the Apache's tenacity on defense was a positive sign for the team. They had eight blocks in the first 32 minutes -- two apiece by Nakanishi, McGuire and Billings -- and never backed down.

They finished with 10 swats, while Hideki Katsumata finished with a team-best three blocked shots.

"No doubt about it, I'm very pleased with our 10 blocked shots," Bryant said, "but in saying that, I don't know if we scored a basket at the other end. (Yet) 10 blocked shots is a lot of blocked shots."

Nakanishi added: "Osaka's Hatano and Joho were playing pretty well, making good shots," Nakanishi said. "I think they scored 30 points combined and Coach (Bryant) was saying that was why they won today."

The teams meet again Sunday at 2 p.m. at Ariake Colosseum.