Strong defense and balanced scoring carried the Takamatsu Five Arrows to a 79-73 victory over the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix on Friday night in Asahikawa, Hokkaido.

The Five Arrows made 13 steals, with Rasheed Sparks leading the way with four. George Leach blocked five shots for the victors. In addition, Hamamatsu, which led the league in scoring at 91.4 points per game entering the game, was held to 9-for-37 shooting from 3-point range.

Sparks led Takamatsu (7-4) with 19 points, Gordon James scored 13 and pulled down 13 rebounds, Satoshi Takeda added 11 points, Hiroyuki Kikuchi had 10 and Yu Okada dished out nine assists.

For the Phoenix (6-5), Andy Ellis was the top scorer with 24 points and Michael Gardener had 21. Center Sun Ming Ming returned to the lineup after a two-game absence due to a knee injury. He played 24 minutes, finishing with six points, five rebounds and seven turnovers in the bj-league's only game of the night.