Radwanska continues roll, makes Sydney final

SYDNEY — Top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska has advanced to the Sydney International final, running her 2013 winning streak to eight matches with a 6-3, 6-4 win on Thursday over former French Open champion Li Na.

Radwanska, who lost in last year's Wimbledon final to Serena Williams, won the Auckland WTA tournament last week and goes into next week's Australian Open as the fourth-seeded player.

The Pole wasn't feeling pressure to extend her winning streak.

"Actually when I was going on court, of course if I win, great; if not, I mean, not that big deal because I really had a lot of matches here and in Auckland," she said. "I'm really ready for the Australian Open. It's always hard to say, but I think of course winning two tournaments in a row is a good thing."

Radwanska will play Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia in Friday's final. Cibulkova beat second-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

In men's action, young Australian Bernard Tomic took a major step toward winning his first career ATP Tour title by downing defending champion Jarkko Nieminen.

The 20-year-old, ranked 64th, clawed back from dropping the opening set to oust the Finn, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 6-2 in a night quarter-final.

Tomic will take on either Italian third seed Andreas Seppi or Spanish eighth seed Marcel Granollers in Friday's semi.

Tomic's only previous tour semifinal ended in defeat against Andy Murray last January in Brisbane.

"I'm ready to go for tomorrow's semifinal," Tomic said. "I'm really confident now and I got a shot to get into the final for the first time in my career."

"So the next match is a big match and I'm going to do everything I can to win tomorrow.

"To get the chance to play (my) first Tour event final and to do it in Australia is going to be unbelievable, but I've got to play two quality players to do so."

The towering Kevin Anderson earlier Thursday became the first South African to reach the Sydney semifinals in nine years with victory over Denis Istomin.

The 36th-ranked Anderson accounted for the Uzbek 6-4, 6-3 in 84 minutes and will face last year's finalist Julien Benneteau of France in Friday's last four.

The last South African to reach the final four was Wayne Ferreira.

Benneteau, who lost to Nieminen in last year's final, was too strong for American qualifier Ryan Harrison, winning 6-4, 6-2.

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Aoki continues All-Star streak with seventh selection

Before the Ryukyu Golden Kings ever played a game and before Okinawa proved to be a terrific location for a Japanese professional basketball team, Cohey Aoki had already established himself as a fan favorite in the bj-league.

Lucky seven: Tokyo guard Cohey Aoki has been chosen for his seventh bj-league All-Star Game. YOSHIAKI MIURA

The league's first-ever All-Star Game, held in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, in January 2007, included then-Tokyo Apache guard Aoki. Since then, he's been the only player in league history to appear in each of the next five showcase games in Niigata; Beppu, Oita Prefecture; Rifu, Miyagi Prefecture; Osaka; and Saitama.

Aoki, now the cornerstone player for the expansion Tokyo Cinq Reves, will make his seventh All-Star assignment — all starts — on Jan. 20 at Ariake Colosseum. He is the highest-scoring Japanese player in the league this season, averaging 14.5 points per game.

And despite his small stature, the 167-cm Aoki's shooting skills have stood tall. He's shooting 50.4 percent from inside the 3-point arc and better than 93 percent at the free-throw line. His clutch 3-point shooting remains the stuff of legends, too.

Tokyo coach Motofumi Aoki, who has kept the new club (7-11 through Sunday) within shooting distance of playoff contention, will direct the Eastern Conference club, with Yokohama B-Corsairs coach Reggie Geary serving as his bench assistant.

The rest of the East's starting five includes three-time All-Star guard Takanori Goya (Shinshu Brave Warriors, 10.5 ppg) and first-timers Marquin Chandler (Chiba Jets, 19.4 ppg), Jonathan Jones (Tokyo, 21.3 ppg) and Dillion Sneed (Iwate Big Bulls, 17.5 ppg).

The East's All-Star backups are guards Shigehiro Taguchi (Akita), Kimitake Sato (Niigata), Masashi Joho (Toyama, a five-time selection), Shingo Okada (Gunma), Takuma Yamashiro (Saitama) and Draelon Burns (Yokohama) and forward Takuya Komoda (Sendai).

For the Western Conference, the starting backcourt features Tsubasa Yonamine (4.9 ppg, 4-to-1 assist/turnover ratio) and Narito Namizato (13.1 ppg) of the Ryukyu Golden Kings and Kings forward Anthony McHenry (15.1 ppg), and Kyoto Hannaryz forward David Palmer (14.9 ppg) and Shimane Susanoo Magic forward Kazuya "J." Hatano (8.0 ppg and 5.6 rpg in 18 appearances with Oita before joining Shimane recently). The West's head coach is Ryukyu's Koto Toyama and Atsushi Kanazawa of the Rizing Fukuoka is his assistant.

The West's reserves are guards Shinya Ogawa (Shiga), Hiroyuki Kikuchi (Takamatsu), Akitomo Takeno (Fukuoka), Taishiro Shimizu (Oita) and forwards/centers Atsuya Ota (Hamamatsu Higashimikawa), Nathan Walkup (Osaka) and Michael Parker (Shimane).

For the 3-Point Shootout, the contestants are Aoki, Toyama's Angel Garcia, Iwate's Kenichi Takahashi, Ogawa, Kyoto's Yu Okada and Palmer. Aoki is the defending champion.

In the Slam Dunk Contest, the participants are Toyama's Ira Brown, Tokyo's Akihito Inoue, Tokyo's Dennis Carr, Shiga's Ray Nixon, Osaka's Yoshihiro Tachibana, a two-time champion, and Miyazaki's Larriques Cunningham. (Defending champion John "Helicopter" Humphrey of Saitama is sidelined with a back injury.)

Five Arrows talk: Takamatsu (7-11) has already won more than three times as many games as last season, and coach Kenzo Maeda's club still has 34 contests remaining on its 2012-13 schedule.

Stranger things have happened than a team recovering from a 2-50 season to rebound to respectable form the next campaign, and swingman Dexter Lyons, the Five Arrows' leading scorer (15.0 ppg) is confident his team is just getting started.

"To me, it is vital and pivotal for everyone to understand their role as a player on this particular team," Lyons told The Japan Times. "We are a 'defensive team,' but with offensive weapons too, and I think that we have to understand we have to be the team to initiate the aggressiveness from the start, or we will continue to fight against ourselves."

In 18 games, Takamatsu has put 1,346 points on the board and yielded 1,400.

"As this team continues to understand our identity, we have shown to be a good team base unit," Lyons continued. "No one on this team thinks they are the only star on the team, including me.

"We share the basketball on offense, but some players lack the confidence it takes on an every-game basis. I think that we have to improve on boxing out and rebounding. Too many times I can recall us as a team giving up too many second-chance points causing the other team to push their lead further."

Despite the fact that Takamatsu has made big strides since last season, Lyons, who's in his first season with the Shikoku-based club after playing for Miyazaki in 2011-12, realizes the Five Arrows are far from a finished product.

At this point in the season, I am not happy," he admitted, "but I think we are shocking many clubs with the personnel that we have, being we have some first-timers in the bj-league and that we are inexperienced with our Japanese players.

"We are getting better every day and I see us becoming a talented ball club with the smarts of coach Kenzo."

To a man, Lyons has a chip on his shoulder as he reflects on the team's status and its image.

"I don't like that the league still thinks this is last year's team that only won two games," he said bluntly. "And I think the refs are carrying this into this season. Just saying . . . I respect them, but they need to get better or this may cause major problems around this league."

"I firmly believe that we have not played our best basketball yet, but I will make sure to lead these guys," the Central Florida product declared.

89ers update: Taking stock of their season to date, Sendai 89ers bench boss Bob Pierce said his team, in a rebuilding mode with seven new players on its opening day roster, needs to employ more physicality on the court, especially in the closing minutes of games.

Speaking after the 89ers' 79-68 defeat last Friday against the host B-Corsairs, Pierce said his club did not match Yokohama's physical intensity and strength in the two-game series (both losses for the guests).

"I thought the biggest difference down the stretch was as the game got physical and there were bumps and pushes on every play, we were the ones going like this (backing off) and looking to the referees," said Pierce after his team dropped its fifth straight game and fell to 5-12.

"And when the game gets physical, if you're not physical back, you are going to lose and the biggest difference in the last six minutes or so is that we were little kids out there complaining to our mommy to come help us because someone was pushing us around."

In order to climb in the standings and enter the playoff conversation in the East, the ninth-place 89ers need to become better rebounders, Pierce said, especially "when you are playing to get the key rebounds at the end of the defensive possession." He added that the team is giving up too many second-chance points.

Furthermore, Sendai's in-game time management has been inadequate.

Case in point: the series finale against Yokohama.

"We used all of our timeouts, just trying to control the game and avoid turnovers with 4 minutes to go, and I always try to save two or three to the end," Pierce said. "So the fact that we had to use seven timeouts before the 4-minute mark was a sign that not just the guards but our team is not taking care of the ball and controlling what's going on, on the court."

Newcomer T.J. Cummings played his first two games in an 89ers uniform last weekend, and working him into the mix and getting adjusted to his new teammates is a work in progress.

"With T.J. coming on, obviously sometimes the defensive and offensive rotations were off . . . especially when they had to make quick decisions on pick-and-rolls with Draelon (Burns) and Thomas Kennedy," Pierce said. "Those things in particular are things we have to work on, making sure we are physical on rebounding."

Burns and Kennedy combined for 36 points in the series opener, followed by 41 a day later.

B-Corsairs banter: Under the steady leadership of second-year sideline supervisor Reggie Geary, the bj-league's 2011-12 Coach of the Year, Yokohama is among the league's hottest teams as the year winds down.

Yokohama (12-6) has won four straight, six of its last seven and seven of its last 10.

Strong defense and 3-point shootings are keys to the team's success.

"I've been saying from day one that's how this team was built," Geary said last week. "We want to be an up-tempo team. We felt that we had a good core of shooters coming back, and we added some new scorers to the equation. And so we want to spread the floor and do exactly what we are doing right now.

The B-Corsairs are 160-for-419 from beyond the 3-point arc, with Masayuki Kabaya (44-for-96) and Burns (46-for-110) their top two options.

Returning to the Final Four after accomplishing that feat as a first-year franchise remains the top target for Geary's club.

"I'm excited about where we're at, but I'm more excited about where we are going because we can play so much better and still have a long way to go in terms of where we eventually want to be," Geary said.

Pressed for more details, he responded by saying, "What has been the most pleasant revelation has been how this team has found a way to be very, very good defensively, and I think that we're playing defense at the right time. And for me, as the head coach, the most encouraging thing is defensively we're really doing some good things."

To illustrate his point, Geary noted that in the team's last 16 quarters, or four games, including the Sendai series, his team had only allowed 20 or more points in three quarters.

In related news, the B-Corsairs have added big man Shawn Malloy, a University of New Orleans product, to their roster. The announcement was made on Wednesday.

The 209-cm veteran played for the Iwate Big Bulls last season and averaged 10.5 rebounds (sixth-best total in the league) and 11.2 points per game.

Upcoming games: Weekend action features Akita vs. Saitama, Niigata vs. Gunma, Chiba vs. Yokohama, Tokyo vs. Iwate, Shiga vs. Takamatsu, Osaka vs. Kyoto, Miyazaki vs. Fukuoka, Shimane vs. Oita and Ryukyu vs. Hamamatsu.

Sendai and Shinshu, meanwhile, will renew their rivalry in a series that tips off on Christmas Eve.

Around the league: The Golden Kings (15-3) have lost three straight games. Star forward Anthony McHenry (knee) did not play last weekend, giving his body a chance to rest. . . . The blockbuster Golden Kings-Phoenix matchup this weekend features the teams that have captured the past four league titles. This series marks their first regular-season meeting as Western Conference rivals. Hamamatsu, winners of seven straight, left the Eastern Conference after finishing runnerup to Ryukyu in May's championship match at Ariake Colosseum. . . .

Gunma opened the season with 12 straight defeats, but has climbed out of the cellar with four wins in its past eight games. Credit coach Ryan Blackwell, who was left to pick up the pieces after original bench boss Tadashi Hayashi, 0-8 in his brief stint in charge, was shown the door in early November following the team's disastrous start. Floor leader Jermaine Dixon has played an instrumental role in giving the team a better grasp of how to compete in this league. The same can be said for guards Shingo Okada and Kenya Tomori, who, along with Dixon, previously starred for the Phoenix, including on last season's championship runnerup team.

Weekly accolade: Shimane center Jeral Davis, a 216-cm Talladega State (Alabama) product, had a major influence on the Susanoo Magic's back-to-back wins over Ryukyu last weekend in Okinawa.

Davis, the Lawson/Ponta Weekly MVP, blocked 12 shots in the series, including eight on Saturday. He also had 22 points and 12 rebounds in the series opener. A day later, Davis scored 20 points, grabbed eight boards and handed out three assists. He is the league's top shot blocker (3.6 per game) and is on pace to finish atop that category for the third straight season.

On Tuesday, Shimane coach Zeljko Pavlicevic wrote in an email that he's very pleased with the combined efforts of Davis and Parker in leading the team to a pair of big victories and their role as tone-setters for the squad.

New addition: The Saitama Broncos announced the signing of veteran post player Wayne Oliver on Tuesday.

The 201-cm Oliver, 31, attended Cameron University in Oklahoma before embarking on a career that has included stops in the IBL, ABA, Syria, China and Mexico.

Struggling Akita: The Northern Happinets have dropped six of their last 10 games. They were 7-1 to begin the season, and are now 11-7 and in sixth place — the final playoff spot — in the East, after being in first place a few weeks ago.

Akita brought in 199-cm forward Marshall Brown this week, the latest acquisition by Kazuo Nakamura's team, which employs a revolving-door policy for import players more so than any other club in the 21-team circuit.

Brown, a Missouri product, began the season with Miyazaki.

The 27-year-old played for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the NBA Development League last season, averaging 10.2 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 41 games (12 starts).

Got a story idea about the bj-league? Send an email to edward.odeven@japantimes.co.jp

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Pence continues run-producing tear to propel Giants past Diamondbacks

PHOENIX — Hunter Pence has the most RBIs on the San Francisco Giants since he was acquired in a deadline deal with Philadelphia.

Caught you: Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval prepares to apply the tag as the Diamondbacks' Adam Eaton is caught stealing in the first inning on Friday in Phoenix. The Giants won 6-2. AP

Now he's looking for a few more hits.

Pence belted his first grand slam in more than four years, Matt Cain dodged trouble for five-plus innings and the Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-2 on Friday night.

Pence has 34 RBIs and 37 hits with San Francisco. He is batting .233 with four homers in 41 games with the Giants.

"I need to get more hits is what that tells me," Pence said, "Make them pitch to (Buster) Posey with runners on."

Pence's third career grand slam capped a five-run third inning for the NL West-leading Giants, who won for the third time in four games and are 11-5 in their past 16.

Cain sparked the outburst with a leadoff walk and moved to second on Marco Scutaro's one-out infield single. After Pablo Sandoval singled to center to load the bases, Posey hit a grounder to third and Cain slid under Ryan Wheeler's throw on a close play to make it 1-0.

Pence followed with a long drive into the left-field stands for his 21st homer of the season.

"You can never walk the pitcher," Arizona starter Tyler Skaggs said. "I thought they were good pitches but I ended up walking him and then the whole inning kind of exploded."

Cain (14-5) walked three in the first and stranded five runners over the first two innings.

The right-hander allowed four hits, walked a season-high five and also hit a batter. He was charged with one run and struck out two.

"That was a gutsy effort," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "It just got to a point where I had to go get him."

Cain failed to make it through six innings for the second time in his last three starts.

Chris Johnson drove in both runs for the Diamondbacks, who stayed 4? games behind the Cardinals for the second wild-card spot.

Skaggs (1-2) allowed five runs and five hits in four innings after lasting only three innings in his previous start against San Diego on Sept. 7.

Arizona left 15 men on base against seven Giants pitchers.

Braves 2, Nationals 1

In Atlanta, Kris Medlen struck out a career-high 13 and the Braves pulled out a victory over Washington when Andrelton Simmons scored on a throwing error in the ninth inning.

Craig Kimbrel (2-1) earned the win by striking out the side in the top of the ninth on 10 pitches, though Medlen did most of the heavy lifting. He went seven innings, allowing only a homer to Bryce Harper.

Medlen eclipsed the previous best for strikeouts set 11 days earlier when he fanned 12 in a complete-game win over Colorado.

Atlanta also extended his franchise record by winning for the 20th straight time when Medlen is on the mound. That is the longest since the New York Yankees won 20 starts in a row by Roger Clemens in 2001.

Marlins 4, Reds 0

In Miami, Jacob Turner allowed only two hits in a career-high seven innings for his first National League victory, and the Marlins beat the NL Central-leading Cincinnati.

Turner (1-2) outpitched Bronson Arroyo (12-8), who gave up four runs in six innings.

Cubs 7, Pirates 4

In Chicago, Pittsburgh lost its seventh straight game and kept fading in NL wild-card race, falling to the Cubs as Starlin Castro hit a three-run homer.

Phillies 12, Astros 6

In Houston, Jimmy Rollins hit a leadoff homer, Domonic Brown had a two-run shot and John Mayberry and Ryan Howard each had three RBIs to help Philadelphia beat the Astros.

Cole Hamels (15-6) gave up four runs and seven hits over seven innings, and tied a career high for wins set in 2007.

Mets 7, Brewers 3

In Milwaukee, Lucas Duda homered and doubled, Jonathon Niese pitched six strong innings and New York snapped a six-game losing streak, beating the surging Brewers.

Milwaukee leadoff hitter Norichika Aoki was 1-for-5.

Dodgers 8, Cardinals 5

In Los Angeles, Luis Cruz greeted St. Louis reliever Edwin Mujica with a first-pitch, three-run homer in the sixth inning as the Dodgers beat the Cardinals.

Rockies 7, Padres 4

In San Diego, rookies Wilin Rosario and Jordan Pacheco had consecutive two-run doubles in the first inning to lead Colorado to a win over the Padres.

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Kisenosato continues march toward victory

Kisenosato took a big step toward becoming the first Japanese-born winner in over six years Wednesday, beating fellow ozeki Kakuryu on the second attempt to move two wins clear of the field heading into the final stretch of the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament.

Kisenosato, promoted to sumo's second-highest rank after the Kyushu meet last November, and Kakuryu (7-4) had to go through a rematch after both were deemed by ringside judges to have hit the dirt at the same time in their initial clash at Ryogoku Kokugikan.

But Kisenosato took the initiative in the rerun, putting Kakuryu on the back foot from the tachi-ai and bulldozing him over the straw bales.

Kisenosato improved to 10-1 and got some breathing room as the trio of rank-and-filers trailing one win behind at the start of the day — Tochiozan, Tamawashi, Takarafuji — went down like dominoes.

Now retired Tochiazuma was the last Japanese-born wrestler to win a championship title, at the New Year basho in 2006.

Sixteenth-ranked Takarafuji was forced out by eighth-ranked Tochinoshin (6-5), No. 15 Tamawashi was overpowered by veteran Mongolian Kyokutenho and fourth-ranked Tochiozan bit the dust when he was taken out with an under-shoulder swing down by sekiwake Toyonoshima (6-5).

Ozeki Baruto, Kotoshogiku, Kyokutenho and 11th-ranked Shotenro are also in an eight-way tie at 8-3.

In other bouts back in the upper echelons of the makuuchi division, lone yokozuna Hakuho (7-4), wrestling with a fractured left index finger, had too much savvy for Kotooshu (6-5) and floored the Bulgarian ozeki.

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Surging Yokohama continues amazing season, advances to Final Four

Storming the lane: Yokohama's Draelon Burns drives on Akita's Kazuhiro Shoji in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference playoff series on Thursday night at Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium. Yokohama won the series 2-1. KAZ NAGATSUKA

YOKOHAMA — Self-assurance has been a recurring theme for the Yokohama B-Corsairs throughout their inaugural season.

They fought the two-time defending champion Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix to a season-opening loss in overtime back in October, and came back the next day and earned a series split.

They hovered around the .500 mark for several weeks before finding their stride, getting a big boost from key acquisition Draelon Burns and closing the regular season with 22 wins in their last 30 games to post a 31-21 record and earn the Eastern Conference's No. 2 seed for the bj-league playoffs.

And, after outlasting the Akita Northern Happinets on Friday night, they have advanced to next weekend's Final Four at Ariake Colosseum.

It's a stunning accomplishment for a first-year franchise in the 19-team league.

Now they await the winner of the Hamamatsu-Niigata Albirex BB series, which was scheduled to begin on Saturday.

"I am confident in my team, and we are preparing to give ourselves a fighting chance at winning a championship," Yokohama coach Reggie Geary said recently.

"Obviously, we are very happy," Geary said in a crammed press room. "This is a historic day for the B-Corsairs organization."

Akita defeated Yokohama 82-69 in Game 2 of the high-stakes series before a rowdy crowd of 2,120 at Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium to force a mini-game tiebreaker: two 5-minute periods after a 20-minute intermission. The mini-game ended this way: Yokohama 18, Akita 15.

In Game 2, the Happinets, playing fierce and focused, were led by 22-year-old shooting guard Shigehiro Taguchi's 20-point outburst, four 3s and 8-for-14 shooting from the field. Akita star Ricky Woods had 18 points and nine rebounds as Yokohama's 10-game winning streak ended.

Power forward Justin Burrell, the 2011-12 MVP as a rookie, paced the B-Corsairs with 21 points and 17 rebounds.

Like he had done a week earlier after a two-point loss to the Sendai 89ers in the series opener, the Northern Happinets' wily bench boss, Kazuo Nakamura, got his players to bounce back in a must-win rematch the next day.

(Akita blitzed Sendai, using an 18-0 run to start the second game and force the tiebreaker.)

Against Yokohama, Akita led 18-16 after one quarter, and held a one-point edge at halftime. The hot-shooting Happinets erupted for 28 third-quarter points, running disciplined sets and moving the offense with precision. Despite trimming the deficit to single digits on a couple occasions late, the hosts fell short.

Burrell, the team's go-to player all season, wouldn't let it happen again. He scored the team's first nine points of the mini-game. In a signature moment highlighting the team's trust in its top scorer, center Chas McFarland's lob to his frontcourt mate earned Burrell a trip to the foul line, and he calmly sank two free throws to make it 9-5.

"From day one, when we started practice, I knew JB was an excellent player," McFarland said, citing what he had learned about Burrell's college career at St. John's. "He's really led by example and worked hard every day in practice."

More important, McFarland noted, "he doesn't let (success) go to his head."

But as always, the rapid-fire Happinets still had a shot. A Woods layup cut it to 9-7, but B-Corsairs captain Masayuki Kabaya's runner pushed the lead back to four, and moments later Burrell completed a layup-and-one to give Yokohama a 15-9.

Happinets forward Lionel Green's 3-pointer pulled them within 15-12 before Kenji Yamada and Burns sank free throws down the stretch for the hosts, the latter's two foul shots coming after gunner Kyle Swanston's 3-ball pulled Akita within one in the closing seconds.

Burns' free throws represented the final points of the series, with Green's 3 off the mark at the buzzer.

Yokohama secured the mini-game win at the charity stripe, taking 15 free throws (making 10, including Burrell's 6-for-9) to Akita's zero.

"Sometimes the ball just doesn't go in for us," Burrell said, describing his team's somewhat tense demeanor in Game 2. "But you have just got to keep doing the other things — defense. . ."

This included Burns' 4-for-13 shooting, Burrell's 7-for-16, Marcus Simmons' 1-for-6 and Kenji Yamada's 2-for-6.

"I'm so proud of this group of players. They fought through adversity," added Burrell, with McFarland, Kabaya and Kenji Yamada sitting beside him in the interview area.

Lumping Game 2 and the mini-game together, Burrell described it as "the most physical and exhausting game we've played all year."

Before the mini-game, Geary kept his message simple as his team returned to the court to face the pesky Happinets, who were 0-4 against the B-Corsairs in the regular season.

He penciled in the names of Burns, Kabaya and Yamada in the backcourt and Burrell and McFarland for the mini-game lineup, sticking with the starting five that has worked so effectively during the team's improbable run to the Final Four.

"I just relied on these guys to get the job done," Geary said.

It worked. And Yokohama's season resumes next weekend with a golden opportunity for the team to establish a greater fan base throughout Kanagawa Prefecture.

"Japanese fans are very loyal and supportive, and once the people of Yokohama and Japan become more exposed to the sport, it will only grow," Geary said.

"Our very first road game we had a traveling party of one fan. In the final regular-season games of the year that were on the road, we had a traveling party of 40 vociferous fans. . . . We still have some work to go to get more fans, but the future is bright."

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Tosu continues strong start by holding Reysol

KASHIWA, Chiba Pref. — First-division debutants Sagan Tosu kept up their impressive start to the J. League season with a 1-1 draw away to reigning champions Kashiwa Reysol on Saturday.

Full force: Shimizu S-Pulse's Toshiyuki Takagi nets the game-winning goal in the 77th minute against FC Tokyo on Saturday at Ajinomoto Stadium. Shimizu won 1-0. KYODO

Sagan went into the match at Hitachi Stadium fifth in the table with a division-lowest record of three goals conceded from seven games, but an opener in first-half stoppage time from Kashiwa's Hideaki Kitajima threatened to burst the Kyushu side's bubble.

Teruaki Kobayashi pounced on a loose ball midway through the second half to rescue a point for Tosu, however, keeping Yoon Jong Hwang's side firmly among the leading pack in its first-ever campaign in the top flight.

"It was hot today, and this was the first time we have played in an atmosphere like this," said the South Korean, whose team now has 14 points from eight games. "We couldn't adjust to that, and in the first half we lost our concentration and allowed them to score.

"But in the second half the players fought until the end, and we managed to pull a goal back. A lot of our fans made the trip to watch us here, and it was their support that pushed the players on until the final whistle."

An temperature of 18.9 C was recorded for the game, but with the pitch in the full glare of the sun for 90 minutes, the reality was almost certainly different.

"Both teams had to deal with it, so it was the same for everyone," said Tosu striker Yohei Toyoda. "I don't think it made the difference."

Leandro Domingues twice went close to breaking the deadlock as Kashiwa made a strong finish to the first half, and the pressure paid off when Kitajima headed home Jorge Wagner's corner to send the home side into the break a goal up.

Naoyuki Fujita almost leveled the score five minutes into the second half when he thumped a free kick against the crossbar, before Junya Tanaka rattled the woodwork at the other end with a volley from another Wagner cross.

But with Reysol looking more and more likely to add to their tally, Kobayashi grabbed the equalizer. Kim Min Woo swung a free kick into the Kashiwa box, and Kobayashi was on hand to fire the ball home after it broke his way following a scramble in the six-yard area.

Both teams had chances to claim all three points in a frantic finale, but Kashiwa substitute Masato Kudo missed the best of the them when his lunge at a Hiroki Sakai cross fell just short of connecting.

"We haven't been getting good results recently and we wanted to do all we could to win today," said Kashiwa manager Nelsinho. "They are a strong team and we knew they would keep fighting until the end. We created a lot of chances but we just couldn't put them away.

"All we are lacking at the moment is the final touch to put the ball in the net."

Elsewhere in the J. League, Urawa Reds rebounded from defeat in last week's Saitama derby with a 2-1 win away to Nagoya Grampus, while Shimizu S-Pulse also picked up three points on their travels with a 1-0 victory over FC Tokyo. Sanfrecce Hiroshima did likewise, 4-1 over Kawasaki Frontale.

League leaders Vegalta Sendai maintained their unbeaten record with a 1-0 win over Albirex Niigata, Kashima Antlers thumped Gamba Osaka 5-0, and Yokohama F. Marinos finally picked up their first victory of the season, 3-1 over Vissel Kobe.

Omiya Ardija beat Consadole Sapporo 2-1, and in the day's late game Cerezo Osaka topped Jubilo Iwate 3-2.

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