Simply put, the numbers worked in the Shiga Lakestars' favor on Friday night.
They shot almost 20 percent better from inside the 3-point arc in their series finale against the host Rizing Fukuoka. And that added up to an 87-78 Shiga victory and a series split for coach Chris Boettcher's team.
The Lakestars (8-8) improved to 4-4 on the road.
Big man Shelton Colwell led Shiga with 24 points on 11-for-16 shooting and hauled in 12 rebounds. Teammate Marshall Brown had 20 points and eight rebounds. Yutaka Yokoe scored a season-high 18 points.
Brandon Fields dished out five assists and Lakestars post player Dionisio Gomez chipped in with eight points, five boards, three assists and two blocked shots.
Shiga, which shot 31-for-53 (58.5 percent) from inside the arc, scored 31 second-quarter points to take a 48-40 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
Fukuoka was 22-for-57 (38.6 percent) on 2-point shots.
Reggie Warren had team-high totals in points (19) and rebounds (10) for the Rizing, who fell to 8-8.
Julius Ashby scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds for Fukuoka, while Cohey Aoki scored 13 points and Jun Nakanishi had nine. Akitomo Takeno missed all eight of his shots from the field, but went 5-for-6 at the line, adding eight assists on the night.
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