In Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, Kazuya Hatano scored 23 points, Jeff Newton had 19 and Mikey Marshall had a triple-double (18 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists) to lead the Osaka Evessa to a 79-77 win over the Ryukyu Golden Kings on Saturday night.
Kevin Steenberge's 17 points and Naoto Takushi's 12 led the Golden Kings (7-22). Naoto Nakamura added 10 for Osaka (23-6), which played without starting point guard Matt Lottich, who has a bruised right lower leg. Lottich is expected to miss two to three weeks.
The Evessa maintained their three-game lead over the second-place Takamatsu Five Arrows in the Western Conference.
Elsewhere in the bj-league, Jeffrey Price and Michael Gardener scored 27 points apiece and Michael Parker added 17 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Rizing Fukuoka to a 101-91 win over the visiting Niigata Albirex BB.
Akitomo Takeno, who made his season debut in early February, had 14 points and Tsuyoshi Kawazura added 13 and six assists as Fukuoka (11-19) earned a series split. For the Albirex (20-12), Matt Garrison had team-best numbers in points (23) and rebounds (15), while Yuichi Ikeda and Andre Smith each scored 16.
The Five Arrows cruised to a 94-73 win over the Tokyo Apache at Ariake Colosseum. Takamatsu, now 20-9, outscored Tokyo by a 35-18 margin in the third quarter.
Reggie Warren had 22 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists for the Five Arrows, George Leach scored 13 and Yu Okada had 10. Nick Davis' 20 points led the Apache (15-14).
Veteran forward Ryan Blackwell's 32 points led the Sendai 89ers to an 87-81 road win over the Toyama Grouses. Masayuki Kabaya's 23 points led the Grouses (4-27).
In Beppu, Oita Prefecture, the Saitama Broncos improved to 15-14 with a 96-81 triumph over the Oita HeatDevils.
Mamadou Diouf (27 points), Andrew Feeley (26 points, 14 boards), Gordon James (13 points, 17 boards) and Kazuhiro Shoji (19 points) guided Saitama to victory.
For Oita, which fell to 12-17, Jason Braxton had a team-best 24 points and Andy Ellis added 22.
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