Lin Yu-shu's (林裕書) desperation three-point attempt bounced off the rim as time expired, spoiling the Sina Lions' chance to force overtime in Sunday night's 68-65 title-clinching contest. Blue ribbons flying off the spectator stands immediately covered a good part of the floor as the Yulon Dino bench stormed onto the court in joy to celebrate their first Super Basketball League championship title.
The 2004 SBL Finals came to a crashing end as the Dinos won three straight from the Lions to sweep their way into the promised land for a storybook ending. Coach Chien Yi-fei could not begin to express his overwhelming emotion in guiding his troop to the title after earning the top-seed postseason berth with a 19-5 regular season mark.
"I am thrilled to see that our players came away with the title because it symbolizes the passing of the torch from the older generation of players from their team [Lions] to the younger group of stars on our team." Chien said in the postgame press conference.
PHOTO: SBL
Unlike their previous two matches in which the aging guns for the Lions had faltered by the second quarter, the big cats actually finished the first half with a 35-24 lead.
But the six-deep Lions ultimately could not keep up with the fast and in-your-face Dino squad that ran eight-deep as they chipped away at the halftime lead to close out the third quarter trailing only by three.
With the game on the line, the fourth quarter turned into a seesaw battle where neither team would hold leads bigger than three until the three-minute mark when Lion guard Hsu Yung-yi (徐涌譯) was tagged with an intentional foul that gave the Dinos two free throws and the ball in a four-point play.
The controversial call put the Dinos up by five and quickly had the Lions fouling Dino players on every ensuing possession in an effort to conserve time on the clock.
The Dinos did not hit all the free throws late in the game, but managed to make enough of them to hold off the Lions for the win.
Chou Shih-yuan led all scorers with 20 points, 12 of which came in the all-critical second half.
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