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.