George Leach scored 26 points and hauled in eight rebounds and Anthony McHenry had a 15-point, 11-rebound effort as the defending champion Ryukyu Golden Kings rang in the new year with a 77-66 home win over the Saitama Broncos on Saturday in the bj-league.
Jeff Newton added a double-double (13 points, 14 points), Tsubasa Yonamine had nine points and dished out seven assists and Bryan Simpson and Yosuke Sugawara scored seven points apiece to lead Ryukyu (17-4) to a victory in the series opener.
For Saitama (8-11), Taishiro Shimizu scored a team-best 20 points and Mario Jointer added 17.
After Shimizu's 3-pointer cut the Golden Kings' lead to 63-61 with 5:05 to play in the fourth quarter, the hosts went on a 14-5 spurt to close out the game.
Also Saturday, Takeshi Mito scored 19 points and handed out six assists and Jason Underwood had a season-high 18 points in the Toyama Grouses' 86-79 triumph over the visiting Niigata Albirex BB. Kirby Lemons finished with 17 points and 15 rebounds and Makoto Kato had a 13-point effort for the Grouses, who improved to 9-10.
Paul Butorac paced the Albirex with 22 points. Akitomo Takeno added 13 points and Tyrone Levett had 12 points and 10 boards for Niigata (9-10).