Wu Yung-ren's game-high, 25-point effort in last Sunday's contest against Taiwan Beer not only helped the bankers edge past the beermen in a thrilling 75-72 win, but also earned him the Player of the Week honor.
The second-year point guard from San Min Senior High School also banged the glass hard in collecting eleven rebounds for his first career double-double performance.
PHOTO: SBL
Wu's incredible 5-for-6 shooting from beyond the three-point arc (9-for-14 from the floor overall) made him a constant scoring threat throughout the game, something the opposing players had not counted on, since Wu had been known more for his ability to penetrate the middle instead of as sharp shooter.
Wu and company will have their hands full this weekend as they take on the 2-0 Video Land Hunters tonight in what will be a high-pace game, before the bankers pay a visit to the Sina Lions' den tomorrow afternoon.
Even though the Hunters match up extremely well against Bank of Taiwan as far as size is concerned, their ability to handle the expected full-court press from the bankers will determine if they can breeze through this game the same way they beat up on the Dacin Tigers and the ETTV Antelopes last week.
Judging from the Lions' five-point loss to defending champs, the Yulon Dinos, last Saturday, the Lion-Banker confrontation should be the most evenly matched game of the week. Both squads have a physical frontcourt that can patrol the paint very well on defense, and the matchup between the Lions' Luo Hsing-liang and Bank of Taiwan's Wu Yung-ren at the point guard position is equally even.
The scale may be tilting slightly towards the bankers because they can go at least four-deep into the bench, compared to the Lions' two.
Lin "The Beast" Chih-jeh-led Taiwan Beer will also play a pair of tough games this weekend, starting with tonight's contest against the Dinos and tomorrow night's battle against the Antelopes.
How well can The Beast find an opened teammate after he is double-teamed on offense will be the key to their success as they try desperately to get away from the one-man show that coach Yen Jia-hua would like to avoid.
Newly acquired Antelope power forward Liao "The Refrigerator" Wei-chen's reunion with his former beer mates will have the Taiwan Beer fans wondering if his off-season departure made sense at all.
The Dacin Tigers will try to bounce back from their disappointing defeat at the hands of the Hunters last week on Sunday as they face the Lions in what should be an easy Tiger victory.
Being the only team in the league that did not have substantial roster changes to start the season, the Tigers had every reason to expect the team that qualified for postseason play last season to build on their success this year. The backcourt for the Tigers should have a big day offensively against its inexperienced counterparts, as long as it can wear down Lion veteran Luo Hsing-liang early in the game to force coach Liu Jung-ching to send in a less experienced replacement.
Sunday's other contest will feature the high-scoring Hunters and the Dinos, which will have finished tough games against Taiwan Beer and the Bank of Taiwan respectively.
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