The red-hot Toyama Grouses collected their 12th straight victory on Saturday, a wild 70-61 home triumph over the Iwate Big Bulls in the Eastern Conference semifinal series opener.

Coach Bob Nash's club held fifth-seeded Iwate to three points in the fourth quarter while scoring 20 points in the final 10 minutes.

The Big Bulls 58-50 after three quarters.

Looking back on the game, Toyama forward Duke Crews said, "I just think that we showed a lot of heart tonight."

"No one on our team really had a great game tonight," Crews told The Japan Times. "But we stayed together and tightened up our defense and were able to make some big shots in the fourth quarter."

He added: "They pressured us early and played physical, but we just calmed down and played our game and we were able to get a big win."

The teams square off again on Sunday with a trip to the Final Four on the line. (If Iwate wins Game 2, the series will be decided by a 10-minute mini-game afterward.)

Crews, a Bowie (Maryland) State alum, paced the top-seeded Grouses with 22 points and Takeshi Mito had 16 points. Drew Viney and Masashi Joho chipped in with 11 and 10, respectively.

Toyama's poor free-throw shooting (16-for-28) was a notable statistic on the night. Crews made 10 of 18 attempts.

For the Big Bulls, Tatsunori Fujie, a former Grouses player, had a team-high 14 points and ex-Gonzaga University big man Abdullahi Kuso scored 13, grabbed 10 boards and swatted five shots. Patrick Sanders and Shota Onodera both had 11 points. Sanders, who canned 12 of 20 3s in last weekend's first-round series against the Niigata Albirex BB, made 1 of 8 in Game 1 aginst Toyama, and pulled down a game-high 16 rebounds.

As a team, Iwate sank 6 of 30 3-point shots.

Northern Happinets 92, 89ers 71

In Sendai, No. 3 seed Akita jumped out to a 48-34 halftime lead en route to a runaway victory against the second-seeded hosts.

The Northern Happinets out-rebounded Sendai 59-38.

The 89ers had a rough time at the foul line, making just 7 of 18 shots, including Terrance Shannon's 1-for-9 effort. He finished with 17 points, Wendell White scored 16, Fumiya Sato had 13 and Masaharu Kataoka 12. Takehiko Shimura handed out five assists.

Sendai missed 15 of 20 3s.

Richard Roby paced Akita with 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Scott Morrison had 16 points on 7-for-8 shooting and eight boards, and also struggled mightily at the line, making 2 of 10. Yuto Otsuka added 12 points and Shigehiro Taguchi scored 10. Ray Turner hauled in 11 rebounds and blocked two shots to go along with six points.

Ryosuke Mizumachi and Taguchi each dished out four assists for the Happinets, and Turner and Otsuka both had three.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Hannaryz 95, Lakestars 92 (OT)

In Kyoto, the top-seeded hosts outlasted No. 5 Shiga in overtime in the series opener.

The Lakestars trailed 43-31 entering the third quarter, but chipped away at the lead and outscored Kyoto 29-19 in the fourth quarter.

The Hannaryz got a big performance from Tyren Johnson, who had 21 points, including 11-for-13 at the free-throw line, and nine rebounds. Kevin Kotzur added 18 points and nine boards and Sunao Murakami poured in 17 points. Moses Ehambe and Takuya Komoda chipped in with 12 and 11 points, respectively, for Kyoto.

Jeff Parmer and Julian Mavunga each had 21 points for Shiga, which shot 57.8 percent from 2-point range. Yu Okada contributed 18 points and Yutaka Yokoe had 10. Mavunga grabbed 11 rebounds and also had seven turnovers. Parmer finished with 10 boards and five assists.

Golden Kings 82, Evessa 74

In Okinawa City, second seed Ryukyu prevailed in Game 1 against No. 6 Osaka, getting 22 points from DePaul University product Draelon Burns and 19 from Shuhei Kitagawa.

Anthony McHenry chipped in with 18 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, three blocks and two steals in a banner performance for the Golden Kings. Teammate Ryuichi Kishimoto finished with eight points and Shigeyuki Kinjo had seven.

The Evessa led 35-34 at halftime.

Shun Watanuki and Lawrence Blackledge paced Osaka with 17 points apiece, Narito Namizato scored 13 against his former team and DeAngelo Hamilton had 11.

The Evessa were 7 of 14 at the free-throw line and shot 30-for-78 (38.4 percent) from the field

Blackledge had a team-high 11 rebounds, while Namizato led the club with four assists.