Cohey Aoki scored a game-high 20 points and dished out five assists and Julius Ashby added 16 points and grabbed 16 rebounds as the Tokyo Apache defeated the Niigata Albirex BB 80-59 on Wednesday at Yoyogi National Gymnasium No. 2.
Tokyo snapped a three-game losing streak to start the bj-league season and won its first game under new coach Motofumi Aoki, who replaced Joe Bryant during the offseason. Shoji Nakanishi added 17 points for the hosts, who led by as many as 25 points in the final quarter. Frontcourt standout Nick Davis pulled down 12 rebounds.
After beating the Apache by 20 points on Tuesday and having five double-digit scorers in the rout, Niigata's top scorer was Antonio Burks, who had a 12-point effort in the series finale.