Led by another valiant effort from Chen "Airman" Hsin-an (Yulon Dinos), Team Taiwan finally cracked a win on Monday night with a thrilling 81-79 victory over Kazakhstan in the basketball competition of the 2006 Asian Games at Doha, Qatar.
Scoring 24 points for the second straight contest, Chen Hsin-an played head-and-shoulders above his peers by carrying the bulk of the offensive load for Taiwan with several clutch baskets, often against double-team coverage, to rally his team from a late-game deficit for the win.
It was his two free-throws with 10.4 seconds remaining in the game that snapped a 79-79 tie and put Taiwan ahead for good in the game which ended 81-79.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The match began with Taiwan swarming all over Kazakhstan in a gang-busting start, taking leads as large as a dozen points midway through the first quarter.
But the bronze medalists from the last Asian Games fought back with an 8-2 run of their own to close out the quarter trailing Taiwan by only six points (23-17).
Tseng Wen-ding's (Yulon Dinos) outstanding defensive presence inside the paint and his midrange jumpers helped Taiwan maintain its six-point cushion for most of an evenly fought second quarter, with the first half ending 37-33.
Two monstrous three-pointers by Tien Lei (Dacin Tigers) helped to increase Taiwan's lead to 10 points early in the third quarter, before back-to-back three's from Kazakhstan's Rustam Yargaliyev pulled his team to within three points of Taiwan heading into the game-deciding fourth quarter.
Opting for a more conservative approach in a tight final quarter, Kazakhstan decided to exploit its height advantage over Taiwan by pounding the ball in the low-post area. The strategy nearly pulled off a win for Kazakhstan, as it took a 79-78 lead on a three-pointer by Dmitriy Koronikov with 44 seconds to play in the game.
Chen then took over the game for Taiwan by sinking a game-tying free-throw on the ensuing possession and the game-winner with 10.4 seconds left on the clock.
Four different players scored in the double-digits for Taiwan with Chen's game-high 24 points leading the way, followed by Tien's 19, Tseng's dozen and shooting guard Yang Tseh-yi's (Videoland Hunters) 11.
For Kazakhstan, Koronikov led the way with 19, followed by Yargaliyev and Yevgeniy Issakov with 16 and 14 points respectively.
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