Dacin Tiger reserve forward Kao Cheng-kan (高正侃) made the most of the 16 minutes he played in Saturday's contest against Bank of Taiwan by scoring 14 points as the Tigers cruised to an easy 75-54 win.
The 21-year-old graduate of the National Taiwan University of Arts matched his previous points total for the season in just one game with a brilliant effort, making a strong case to coach Liu Chia-fa (劉嘉發) for more playing time in the future.
As for the rest of the Tiger lineup, it was a typical night where team leader Tien Lei (田壘) got his usual double-double (18 points and 16 rebounds) and the defense held the opposition to less than 40 percent shooting from the floor.
Shying away from its "tough-guy" style of play, Bank of Taiwan lost its dominance with a 16-point rebounding deficit (34 to 50), something it had not seen since the early days of the season.
Yulon 71, Jeoutai 85
Kicking off the Lunar New Year with a bang, the Jeoutai Elephants beat the previously undefeated Yulong Dinos with 85-71 in Saturday night's prime time matchup.
It took the Elephants a perfect game to accomplish what many had considered impossible as they took control of the game early on and sustained the intensity for the entire contest. In addition to converting an unbelievable 26 of the 52 two-pointers taken, the Elephants also held an edge over the Dinos in the rebounding and turnover department.
Yang Yu-ming (楊玉明) followed his stellar performance in Friday night's All Star Game with another fine effort, leading the Elephants with 28 points.
The shooting wiz cut several of the Dinos' comeback rallies short by draining key baskets to preserve the lead for his team.
Sina 81, Taiwan Beer 80
In the most exciting game of the weekend by far, the Lions overcame first-half deficits as large as 12 points to beat the Beer men by one point in Game 1 on Sunday afternoon. The victory kept the Lions' eight-game winning streak intact and narrowed the Dinos' (11-1) lead over the Lions (8-3) to just two-and-a-half games.
Veteran center Huang Chuen-hsiung (黃春雄) led the way for the Lions with 24 points, none more critical than the two from the free-throw line which helped put the Lions up by four in the closing seconds of the game. The four-point lead that made it a two-possession game for Taiwan Beer turned out to be the difference because Lin "the Monster" Chih-jeh's (林志傑) three-pointer at the final buzzer would have forced a tie.
The defeat left the Beer men in a difficult position as they struggle to keep their postseason hopes alive.
Bank of Taiwan 62, BCC 81
Striking early and often, the BCC Mars concluded the weekend with an easy win over the Bank of Taiwan, with eleven different Mars players taking the floor.
The Mars took a 22-12 lead after the first period and extended it to 42-23 at the half, as they took advantage of a Bank of Taiwan squad that was missing two of its top five players [Chu Yung-hung (朱永弘) and Luo Da-wei (駱大偉)] due to injury.
Coupled with Saturday's 54-point effort, Bank of Taiwan hit an all-time low for least points scored in back-to-back games, a distinction it would rather forget.
Disgusted with his team's lack of spirit and desire to win, coach Wei Chen-ming (韋陳明) skipped the post-game press conference and later insisted on a new weekly practice routine that he hopes will change his team's losing ways.
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