The Rizing Fukuoka rolled to their fifth consecutive win on Thursday night, beating Western Conference-leading Ryukyu Golden Kings 74-64 in the bj-league series opener.
A strong fourth quarter (Fukuoka outscored Ryukyu 27-16) and opportunistic defense (13 steals) fueled the victory for coach James Duncan's club at home.
The fifth-place Rizing improved to 21-20. The Golden Kings, who had an uncharacteristic 22 turnovers, including Draelon Burns' team-high six, fell to 33-6.
Spitfire guard Akitomo Takeno paced Fukuoka with 16 points with four assists and four steals. Macho forward Reggie Warren added 14 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals. Seth Tarver drained 4 of 6 3-pointers en route to 14 points. Teammates Masahiro Kano, Jun Nakanishi, David Palmer and Cohey Aoki all scored six points. Palmer grabbed a team-best nine rebounds.
For Ryukyu, Ryuichi Kishimoto was the high scorer with 15 points and Burns had 13.
The Golden Kings trailed 29-22 at halftime and 47-38 entering the final period.
The Rizing, championship runnerup last season under ex-bench boss Atsushi Kanazawa, are 10-3 since Duncan took over as coach in late January and guided the team in his first game in charge on Feb. 1