Taiwan's Super Basketball League action resumed after a three-week break to accommodate the University Basketball Association playoffs, with the Videoland Hunters defeating YMY 71-65 at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium Friday night.
Despite a dismal 2-for-22 shooting from behind the three-point arc, the Hunters managed to keep their postseason hopes alive with an attack led by power forward Lee Chi-yi's 5-for-7 shooting inside the paint and center Lai Guo-hong's 7-for-12 night, also from close range.
The game began with both clubs appearing a bit rusty in a low-scoring first quarter that had the Hunters holding on to a 18-17 lead.
Poor shooting by YMY, in addition to a series of unforced turnovers on their part in a dreadful, eight-point second quarter helped the Hunters build a 37-25 lead to end the first half.
Ten straight points by veteran guard Luo "The Natural" Hsin-liang at the start of the third quarter brought YMY to within one of the Hunters (42-41), before a strong Videoland rally, highlighted by Lai's buzzer-beating deuce, made it 49-44 in favor of the Hunters.
YMY took a brief one-point lead with six points in a row to start the fourth quarter, but a Lee-led attack produced a 12-2 run for the Hunters, sending YMY to its 24th consecutive loss.
Three different Hunters players scored in the double digits. Lee had 20 and Lai and guard Yang Tseh-yi each had 15 points.
Two YMY players scored in double-digits -- Luo, with his game-high 23, and forward Wang Chuan-jien with 15 points.
Dinos 85, Taiwan Beer 68
The Yulon Dinos secured a first-seed berth in the postseason after dominating Taiwan Beer 85-68 in Game 2 on Friday.
A near-eight minute scoring drought by the brew crew led to a commanding 25-6 lead for the Dinos by the end of the opening quarter.
It took five big three-pointers in a 25-point second quarter against a steady Dinos attack (19 points in the quarter) to close out the first half with some respect for Taiwan Beer, who trailed 44-31.
The second half had Taiwan Beer off to a good start, which got them to within 10 points of the defending champs. But the Dinos pulled away toward the end of the third quarter with a 14-4 run.
Two Dinos players ended with double-double efforts. All-Star center Tseng Wen-ding had a game-high 14 points, along with with 10 rebounds, and second-year forward Liu Sheng-yao had 11 points and also 10 rebounds.
Brewer star Lin "The Beast" Chih-jeh was unusually flat for the night with 13 points in 5-for-20 shooting -- well below his season average of 24-plus points per game prior to Friday's contest.
NBA
Dirk Nowitzki scored 30 points to lead the Dallas Mavericks to a 92-86 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in a showdown of the top two teams in the Western Conference on Friday night.
The Mavericks (57-19) cut the Spurs' lead to one game in the Southwest Division with both teams having six games left to play.
At stake is the top seed in the Western Conference, with the team that finishes second getting the No. 4 seed. The Mavericks and Spurs split the season series, which is the first tiebreaker. Dallas has a half-game lead in the second tiebreaker, which is won-loss record in the Southwest Division.
Josh Howard scored 20 of his 22 points in the first half for the Mavericks.
Manu Ginobili led San Antonio (58-18) with 22 points.
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