Yulon Dinos eclipse flailing BCC Mars

Riding on all-star power forward Chen Hsin-an (陳信安), the top-seeded Yulon Dinos claimed victory over the BCC Mars by a final score of 72-66 in Game 1 of the best-of-three series between the two squads on Thursday night at the Taipei Sports Education College Arena.

leader

The former National Basketball Association (NBA) tryout contender led all scorers with 19 points, along with four rebounds and four assists.

The game began with the Dinos taking an early 13-2 lead, after the Mars squad failed to connect on all but one early field goal attempts.

strategy

This strategy to attack with their outside game took many by surprise because Mars key perimeter threat Yen Hsin-shu (顏行書) did not dress for the game due to a leg injury.

As for the Dinos, the early lead proved to make the difference in the game. Mars quickly turned to their inside game by feeding big men Lee Chi-yi (李啟億) and Lai Guo-hung (賴國弘) down below in the second quarter and played an even match the rest of the way.

Trailing the Dinos by seven points with just under a minute to play, the Mars appeared to have gathered enough momentum by sinking an easy layup to reduce the gap to five points, when the 24-second shooting clock erroneously went off and led to the nullification of the Mars basket. Several Mars fans reacted by tossing plastic bottles onto the court in protest.

resumed

The game resumed after the officials settled the dispute with both coaches and a temporary stoppage of play to remove the debris from the floor.

Mars shooting guard Chen Hui's (陳暉) three-pointer would cut the lead to just two points with 24 ticks on the clock, but his teammates' failure to foul the Dinos on the ensuing possession allowed the Dinos to find a wide-open Chou Shih-yuan (周世淵) all alone underneath the basket for a two-handed slam dunk that put the game out of reach.

The two clubs will meet again tonight in what could be the last contest of the season for the Mars. Another loss would send them packing and advance the Dinos into the championship round against the winner of the series between the Dacin Tigers and the Sina Lions.

This should be familiar territory to the Mars because it was only six days ago that they won a must-win game against the Lions for the right to be in the postseason matches.

While Yen Hsin-shu's availability will carry a huge bearing on the Mars' chances to pull off a win tonight, their ability to make the necessary adjustments on both ends of the floor and control the glass will ultimately determine the outcome of the game.

"We are right where we want to be in terms of mental readiness," Coach Chung Chih-mong (鍾枝萌) said before the series began, "as the underdogs, we have everything to gain and nothing to lose."

Perhaps this approach will give the Mars just enough boost to stretch the series into the third and deciding game.