Not even Wu Dai-hao's career night was enough to pull off the upset of the year in the Super Basketball League for the ETTV Antelopes in their 86-84 loss to the Yulon Dinos on Sunday at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium.
The All-Star center for the Antelopes outplayed the Dinos' big men by hitting 17 of the 22 shots for a career-best 37 points.
The Antelopes had a chance to win the game on shooting guard Hsu Tseh-hsin's three-point attempt as time expired, but his shot attempt fell short.
"I'm glad we were able to escape with the win, because the Antelopes really had us in a tough spot near the end of the game," Dinos coach Lee Yun-kuan said.
The Antelopes had a 15-point lead at the half. They outscored the defending champs 27-16 in the third quarter and held an 82-81 lead with under two minutes remaining.
But Dinos' forward Chou Shih-yuan's three-pointer with a minute left to play put his team up for good.
Their nail-biting victory on Sunday, coupled with Friday's blowout win over Taiwan Beer helped complete a perfect 2-0 week for
The Dinos were unbeaten in the latest round as the blew out Taiwan Beer on Friday. The Dinos lead the standings with the Videoland Hunters in second -- 2-1/2 behind.
HUNTERS Versus TIGERS
The only other club that finished the week unbeaten were the Hunters, who handled the Dacin Tigers with ease in Saturday's 83-70 decision.
Blanket coverage on the Tigers' three-point shooters disrupted the big cats' perimeter game, as they shot a season-low 4-for-25 (16 percent) from behind the arc, far below their 32.2 percent average.
The much anticipated showdown between two of the league's top offenses never lived up to its hype, as the normally loose Hunters' defense, third worst in the league in terms of total points allowed (78.5 points per game), turned in one of their best defensive efforts of the season.
Twin towers Lee Chi-yi and Lai Guo-hung of the Hunters combined for 33 points, while utility man Yang Tseh-yi chipped in another 13.
Scoring leader Tien Lei of the Tigers netted 28 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in his 20th double-double outing of the season.
Taiwan Beer versus Lions
The beermen's 87-74 slaying of the Sina Lions, saw Lin "The Beast" Chih-jeh draining a record-high eight three-pointers in the first half alone, en route to a 40-point night for the brew masters.
Lin looked all but ready to break his own single-game scoring mark of 44 when he managed to put up 40 points by the end of the third quarter, if it had not been for a leg cramp that sent him to the bench in a scoreless fourth quarter.
It took two deadly three-pointers by the beermen's Ho sho-cheng in the game's final five minutes to put out the fire from a valiant Lions' rally that got them within six points of the beermen.
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