The Yulon Dinos outlasted Bank of Taiwan in an unprecedented triple overtime match at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium on Wednesday night for a 107-102 Game 4 win and the right to advance into the championship series.
With a deeper bench and more postseason experience, the defending champs made sure they would come away with the win this time, after falling short to the bankers by a point on Sunday (98-97) to take the best-of-five first round series by a 3-1 margin.
All-star center Tseng Wen-ding set a new career high with 45 points in the game, despite collecting three first-quarter fouls that might have limited the premier big man in the country to accomplish even more.
"People will be talking about this one for a long time," Tseng said after the game.
The contest began with both squads playing a rather conservative game, with the Dinos trying to establish an inside game and the bankers resorting to their perimeter attack.
But after Tseng was called for his second foul less than five minutes into the game, the bankers then switched to an inside attack in an effort to induce Tseng into further foul trouble.
After an evenly fought first quarter that ended with the Dinos up 23-22, the bankers promptly answered with an 8-3 run to take a brief lead before the Dinos close out the first half up 47-40.
Cutting the Dinos lead by one in a tight third quarter, Bank of Taiwan then resorted to a slew of three-pointers by point guard Wu Yong-ren and top scorer Yang Jin-ming's several hard drives to the basket to force an 85-all tie with less than 25 seconds remaining in regulation time.
A near miss on a drive by Yang that would have won the game for the bankers with the clock running out sent the game into the first overtime. And after two more extra sessions that ended with neither club managing to hold leads larger than three points, the Dinos finally came out on top.
Five different players scored in double digits for the Bank of Taiwan, led by Yang's career-high 32 points and 11 rebounds. Even though they lost the series, the bankers demonstrated unusual resilience and determination which will set a good foundation for the next season.
Taiwan Beer 82, Tigers 73
The word "Attitude," which was written on the wrist tape wraps of the Taiwan Beer players, said it all as they downed the Dacin Tigers 82-73 in Game 4 action to even the series record at 2-2 and force a Game 5 yesterday.
Facing elimination, Taiwan Beer resorted to an uncompromising attitude to win on a great team effort to beat the Tigers in a game that featured five different players scoring in double figures.
The game started with the Tigers hitting three three-pointers in the first quarter to open a 15-10 lead before the beer crew countered with slight run of their own to end the quarter in a 21-all draw.
It took an outstanding effort by Taiwan Beer's Lin "the Beast" Chih-jeh and guard Hsu Hao-cheng in a combined 15-point second quarter to spot the beer crew a 43-34 lead at the half which they would keep for good.
Dacin scoring leader Tien Lei did not have his usual offensive production with the beer crew's Wang Jien-wei and Wu Cih-yuan taking turns at providing blanket-like coverage throughout the entire contest. Though he still cleared 20 points for the game, many of them had come late in the game with the outcome already decided.
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