Experience paid off for second-placed Sina Lions as their thirty-something line-up beat the Yulon Dinos on Friday night 75-68 to avenge a season-opening loss last November.
The battle between the league's top two started in the Dinos' favor as they embarked on a 10-0 run.
But the Lions struck back with a 14-4 run of their own and grabbed a two-point lead after the first period.
Yulon standout Chen Hsin-an (陳信安) took matters into his own hands in the second period as he led the Dinos on a 20-2 run late in the second period to help his team build a 12-point halftime lead.
Keeping their composure, the Lions managed to fight back in the third by sinking five 3-pointers to reduce the Dinos' lead to just four. The lead dwindled further on a few ill-advised plays by the backcourt and eventually turned into a two-point deficit with two minutes left in the game.
A tough Lion defense held the Dinos scoreless in the game's final two and half minutes as the Lions won their ninth straight game.
Taiwan Beer 20, Elephants 0 (76-72)
The final score between Taiwan Beer and the Jeoutai Elephants in Saturday afternoon will officially be 20-0 to the Beer men because the Elephants boycotted the game with a minute and eight seconds left to play in protest of several calls by the referee.
The Elephants said enough was enough after the referee called a loose-ball foul on an Elephant player. A furious Elephant skipper Liu Hua-lin (劉華林) approached the score table and was hit with a technical foul after a couple of unpleasant exchanges with the referee. He then led the entire team to the locker room in protest.
After senior Elephant team officials held an emergency meeting and convinced Liu to play out the remainder of the game, league officials refused the request and claimed the Elephants had already exceeded the maximum allowable time for in-game stoppages, giving Taiwan Beer the controversial win.
Bank of Taiwan 70, Dacin 85
The Dacin Tigers did not disappoint their fans as they blew by the lowly Bank of Taiwan in Game 2 on Saturday night.
Led by all-star forward Tien Lei's (田壘) 25-point effort, the starting five played most of the 40-minute contest, as coach Liu Chia-fa (劉嘉發) felt the need to maintain a high level of intensity throughout the game, even though his Tigers never lost the double-digit lead they had built.
The return of Bank of Taiwan's influential leader Chu Yung-hung (朱永弘) was spoiled by his team's inability to sustain an offensive flow, as the bankers fell behind early to trail the Tigers by 10 in the first half.
Despite a fearless fourth period by the bankers, where they outscored the Tigers by a 23-14 margin, the 24-point Tiger lead proved to be insurmountable as Bank of Taiwan suffered their eighth straight defeat of the season.
BCC 71, Yulon 80
Game 1 on Sunday was a gem as the Dinos bounced back from a tough loss to the Lions on Friday night with an impressive victory over the BCC Mars.
Neither team played much defense in early action as the two clubs played to a 20-20 first-period tie. Then the Dinos decided to kick their defensive game up a notch by holding the high-flying Mars to below .300 shooting from the floor.
Chen Hsin-an scored 33 points for the Dinos, including eight three pointers to soften the loss of center Tseng Wen-ding (曾文鼎). Tseng watched most the game from the comfort of the bench after three quick fouls in the first period limited the second-year big man to just eight minutes of play.
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