Great ball-denying defense against the big guns of the ETTV Antelopes propelled the Bank of Taiwan to a solid 70-64 victory at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium on Friday, snapping the bankers' recent four-game slide in Super Basketball League action.
Rookie center Cheng En-jeh's scrappy defense on the Antelopes' Wu Dai-hao inside the paint kept the All-Star center from getting a clean look at the basket throughout the game, holding Wu to a season-low five points for the night (not counting the game on Jan. 14 in which Wu was injured), far below his season average of 12.6 points per game.
Cheng's defensive dominance on Wu Dai-hao carried over to his teammates Wu Yung-ren and Lin Chun-fong, as they shut down the Antelopes previously red-hot scoring tandem of forward Wu Jia-long and guard Yang Yu-ming by limiting them to just 17 points combined.
Offensively for the bankers, power forward Yang Jing-ming led all scorers with 24 points, followed by Lin Chun-fong's 13 to account for over half of the bankers' total point production.
The win gave the financial wizards a 2-1 edge in contests against the Antelopes this season.
"This was an important win for us because another loss may have turned losing into a habit for us," coach Wei Chen-ming said after the victory. "With the win, we can now move forward in the right direction."
Dinos 76, Taiwan Beer 67
Chou Shih-yuan set another season-high mark in scoring with 29 points for the Yulon Dinos, surpassing his previous mark of 26 that was set just a week ago in the Dinos' 69-56 win over the Dacin Tigers.
The second-year forward has become one of the most lethal offensive threats in the league.
Dinos' center Tseng Wen-ding put on a rebounding and shot-blocking clinic with his 15 boards and a personal-best of seven blocked-shots in the game.
Taiwan Beer's Lin "The Beast" Chih-jeh got his usual 20-plus points (22) for the game, but the fact that he was held to just four points in the first half with glove-like coverage by the Dinos' Chen Chih-chung, set the tone for the game.
It was the Dinos' fifth straight win.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
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