Friday night's contest between the Yulon Dinos and the Jeoutai Elephants turned out to be a much closer game than expected, with the undefeated Dinos escaped with a 63-60 win.
The game began with the Elephants taking a five-point, first-period lead that would grow to as large as 10. Then the Dinos awoke and put together a mini 13-3 run to tie the score at 35 for the first half.
Both teams had trouble finding the basket in the third quarter as they combined to score a record-low 23 points, before the Dinos rediscovered their shooting touch in the fourth en route to the win.
Dino center Tseng Wen-ding (
Taiwan Beer 71, Dacin 80
Lin "the Monster" Chih-jeh's (
The former scoring leader simply could not carry his team like he had done previously as oppositions continued to blanket him with at least two defenders as long as he was on the court.
It was the second straight game that the 21-year-old graduate of Chinese Culture University failed to score more than 20 points.
"Maybe the flu is taking its toll on my performance." Lin told the press after the game when asked about his recent slide.
Paving the way for the Tigers' fifth win of the season was Tien Lei (
Sina 87, BCC 81
The BCC Mars appeared to have gotten over the injuries and flu that had either sidelined or limited four of their starters, scoring a brilliant 48 points in the first half against the second-placed Sina Lions on Saturday night.
That was before the Lions roared back in the third period to reduce the 13-point half-time deficit to just four and eventually moved ahead for the victory.
Failing to keep the paint cleared of Lion big man Huang Chuen-hsiung (
Chou's three-pointer broke a 78-all tie late in the game to give the Lions the lead for good as they downed the Mars once again to up the winning streak to seven.
Yulon 75, Bank of Taiwan 65
The Dinos continued their unbeaten run on Sunday afternoon against the Bank of Taiwan with an impressive 75-65 win.
The victory gave the Dinos a perfect 11-0 record as they handled the bankers without much trouble.
Staring for the Dinos, in the absence of team leader Chen Hsin-an (
Missing in action for the financial wizards in their second straight game was muscle man Chu Yung-hung (
Dacin 60, Jeoutai 89
For the second straight week, the Elephants played the role of spoilers as they surprised the Dacin Tigers in the weekend finale with a dominating 89-60 win.
Fresh off their 80-71 victory over the beer men on Friday, the Tigers had every reason to blow away the Elephants and improve their record to above .500 before the Lunar New Year.
Instead, Yang Yu-ming led an Elephant attack that took a 24-16 first-quarter lead and never looked back.
Yang (28 points) was one of the three Elephants who scored in double-digits for the game.
Aside from Tien Lei's 19 points, the rest of the Tiger pack found an invisible lid over the basket as they shot a combined 14-for-44 from the floor.
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