Masashi Joho made a major impact in the early going and played a key role in the Shiga Lakestars' 75-68 triumph over the Western Conference-leading Osaka Evessa on Saturday in the bj-league.
Joho scored 10 of his team's first 12 points and finished with a team-best 21 in a win over his former club. The shooting guard helped the Evessa win a pair of championships in 2005-06 and 2006-07 before moving on to the Tokyo Apache and then joining Shiga before the start of last season.
The fan favorite's scoring average has increased from 6.7 to 7.6 to 10.0 to 15.0 in the previous four seasons, and now in 2010-11, he's averaging 17.8.