Print

Mail

wiki links

Hoop masters lace up for showdowns

Tonight's Super Basketball League action features two frustrated teams that are looking to prove their worth. Loser of two straight closely fought battles where the combined margin of loss was nine points, the Jeoutai Elephants are hungry for victory.

Playing the Elephants is a young Bank of Taiwan club that has lost three straight games.

The key to victory for the Elephants will be to serve up the ball to big man Shang Wei-fan (尚韋凡), who owned the paint against the Dacin Tigers last week. Once the opposing defense is drawn in, Elephants sharp shooter Yang Yu-ming (楊玉明) will have more elbow room to shoot on perimeter.

Looking to snap its three-game losing streak, Bank of Taiwan will try to contain Shang as much as possible and gain the rebounding edge off the glass with musclemen Lin Chun-fong (林群峰) and Chu Yung-hung (朱永弘).

Tomorrow's contest between the BCC Mars and Taiwan Beer will be their first rematch this season. The 18-point loss suffered by Taiwan Beer in round one should provide plenty of reason for the "beer men" to really take it to the Mars as they look to the league's second-highest scorer, forward Lee "the Monster" Chih-jeh (李志傑), for another giant performance.

The winner of three straight, the BCC Mars boast a high-octane offense that is averaging nearly 86 points per game.

The unbeaten crowd-favorite Yulon Dinos will then do battle against the Dacin Tigers as Chen Hsin-an (陳信安) of the Dinos prepares to handle a Tien-lei-led (田壘) Tiger squad that has been looking forward to this matchup for weeks.

Tien leads the league in scoring (averaging 23.8 points per game) and is second in rebounding (10.8 per game) and blocked shots (2 per game), while Chen's all-around game is considered the best in the SBL.

Tigers coach Liu Jia-fa's (劉嘉發) is expected to implement a wide-open strategy against the Dinos.

Game 1 on Sunday features the Sina Lions and Bank of Taiwan. Both squads have been weak on defense. The Lions have given up over 77 points per game; slightly "better" than Bank of Taiwan that allows 83 points per game on average.

To finish off the weekend, the BCC Mars will put their second-best record on the line against a weaker Jeoutai Elephants team that is still searching for team chemistry four weeks into the season.

It will be extremely difficult for the Elephants to defend against a balanced Mars' attack that is consists of five starters who can break the game wide open at anytime.
This story has been viewed 1533 times.