Chen "Airman" Hsin-an's 14 fourth-quarter points and Tseng Wen-ding's two key blocked shots late in the game propelled the Yulon Dinos to a 92-88 victory over the Dacin Tigers in Game 1 of the Super Basketball League Championship Finals at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium on Thursday night.
The best-of-five championship series, which features the matchup between the heavily favored defending champions and the young-and-speedy Tigers has most experts picking the Dinos to sweep the series.
But the Tigers played the top-ranked club tough in every aspect of the game.
"This is exactly where we want to be mentally," Tigers head coach Liu Jia-fa said prior to the game. "The pressure to win big is all on the Dinos, and that may actually help us loosen up our game in a good way."
Liu and his crew nearly pulled off the upset of the year as the big cats played the Dinos dead-even for three quarters before Chen completely took over the game in the fourth to lead the Dinos to victory.
The contest began with both clubs having trouble finding the basket as they played to a 6-6 tie nearly mid-way through the first quarter.
Then came a sudden scoring splurge that included seven three-pointers between the two squads to help them finish the quarter strong at 24-21 with the Dinos in the lead.
With their top scorer Tien Lei being constantly guarded, the Tigers quickly fell behind by as many as a dozen in the second quarter before backcourt tandem Chang Chih-fong and Wang Chih-chuin put together a 13-2 scoring run to pull their team within five of the Dinos (47-42) at the half.
Another vicious 18-8 scoring-run by the Tigers' backcourt duo in the third quarter, this time with little help from big man Lee Fong-yung, gave the big cats a brief 68-64 lead heading into the final quarter.
The Dinos' rally in the game-deciding fourth, however, proved too much for the Tigers as they fell short by four points to drop the series opener.
Despite placing four of their five starters in double-figure scoring, the Tigers were unable to come up with big defensive rebounds down the stretch to shut down the Dinos' second-chance opportunities, yielding several crucial put-back buckets with the game on the line.
Down by a deuce with under 30 seconds left to play, the Tigers forced the Dinos to miss a tough shot with time running out on the 24-second shot clock. But failure to secure the ensuing defensive rebound, which would have given the Tigers possession of the ball and a chance to at least force a tie, led to another offensive possession by the Dinos, ultimately giving point man Chen Chih-chung a chance to seal the win with a pair of free throws.
"Losing the battle on the glass really hurt us," Liu said after the game. "That will be the focus of our practice tomorrow."
Dinos skipper Lee Yun-kuan was impressed by the poise and clutch shooting that the Tigers' backcourt demonstrated in making up for Tien's sub-par point production.
"This game could have gone either way with the way Chang and Wang were playing, especially towards the end," Lee said after the game.
"I'm just happy that we got away with a win."
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