Chou Shih-yuan's combined 11-for-18 shooting (61 percent) from beyond the three-point arc over a two-game span in last week's Super Basketball League (SBL) action landed the Yulon Dinos' small forward this week's Player of the Week honor.
For the second time in less than a month, the second-year standout from the Taipei Physical Education College has taken home the coveted weekly honor designated for the top individual whose on-court performance is worthy of praise from the voting sports media.
His 23.5-point average, along with a pair of assists and steals, just edged out the ETTV Antelopes' Wu Dai-hao by a point for the weekly award.
PHOTO: SBL
Since his promotion to the starting role at the beginning of the season, Chou has proven himself as one of the premier perimeter threats in the league with a near 50 percent three-point shooting average for the season, making him the top priority among coaches preparing to play against the Dinos.
It was Chou's three-pointer in the game's final minute that delivered the 86-84 win for the Dinos against the Antelopes last Sunday. ?The win helped avoid an otherwise embarrassing loss to the fifth-placed Antelopes for the league-leading Dinos and kept their five-game winning streak intact.
"I'd give myself a B-plus for the week.? There is still a lot of basketball left to be played, so I wouldn't get too hung up over it [the Player of the Week honor]," Chou said after learning of his selection.
Next up for Chou and his Dinos mates in their lone game for the week is tonight's showdown against the second-placed Videoland Hunters, who trail the Dinos by two-and-a-half games in the standings.
With the return of former team leader Chen "Airman" Hsin-an to the Dinos' lineup, the top squad in the league gets even tougher with his NBA-like moves in the low post and deadly shooting from anywhere within a 10m range.
"They [the Hunters] would have to play a perfect game to pull off an upset here, because as things stand right now, the Dinos probably won't lose another game for the rest of the season," a well-known commentator said.
In addition to tonight's showdown between the top clubs in the league, tomorrow afternoon's match between the Dacin Tigers and the Antelopes should also draw a full house with the Antelopes looking to avenge a lopsided, 93-67 loss at the hands of the big cats the last time these two teams squared off.
Trailing the fourth-placed Taiwan Beer by one-and-a-half games in the standings, a win over the Tigers by the Antelopes, coupled with their expected victory over the last-placed Sina Lions on Sunday, could push the Antelopes past the beermen into the elite four come next week Monday.
Fresh off his career-high, 34-point game in a losing effort against the Dinos last Sunday, the Antelopes' all-star center Wu Dai-hao will try to lead his team to victory against the Tigers by making it two big games in a row.
Sunday night's game-of-the-week between the Tigers and the beermen will be a treat to the nation's hoop fans as the top two scorers in the league (Tien Lei of the Tigers and Lin "the Beast" Chih-jeh of Taiwan Beer) get set to battle it out one more time in a must-win situation for both teams.
It took two overtimes and ten three-pointers by the Beast in their last meeting before the beermen ran off with a 97-91 win. The Tigers had a three-pointer in the closing seconds of regulation time when Lin's monstrous "three" wrapped up the game to send it into the first extra session.
"Good teams don't make the same mistake twice, so we will make sure whatever lead we have will stick this time," coach Liu Jia-fa of the Tigers said of his team's tendency to lose their leads late in games earlier this week.
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