The Yulon Dinos had little trouble disposing of the winless Azio Eagles 84-74 at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium on Friday night, winning their seventh straight to improve to a 7-2 record for the season.
After starting off the season with back-to-back losses, the defending champs have come on strong with impressive wins over top caliber opponents.
Friday's contest versus the Eagles saw the Dinos jump to a 24-18 advantage after the first quarter on the strength of all-star center Tseng Wen-ding's superior inside play, before the Eagles answered with a competitive second quarter to close out the first half trailing 38-34.
A few key misses by the Eagles that turned into fast-break baskets for the Dinos in the third quarter would up the Dinos' lead to double-digits against an inexperienced Eagles side.
But with the Dinos wanting to rest their starters ahead of yesterday's showdown against the top-ranked Videoland Hunters, the Dinos score was much closer in the fourth quarter than many had expected.
All twelve of the Dinos squad saw action in the game with Tseng leading the way on a 22-point night. He was followed by fellow forward Wu Chih-wei with eleven points and nine rebounds and shooting guard Chou Shih-yuan's ten-point effort to represent the bulk of the Dinos point production.
As for the Eagles, second-year center Jien Jia-hong's 22-points, 13-rebound outing was the lone spotlight in the game as they dropped the eighth in a row, still searching for that elusive first win.
Bank of Taiwan 62, Taiwan Beer 75
A tenacious Taiwan Beer defense, that held the Bankers to a season-low of five points in the second quarter, proved crucial as the Beer crew prevailed against Bank of Taiwan to snap a two-game losing streak.
Point guard Jien Ming-fu's eight-point burst and veteran muscleman Chu Yong-hong's tough inside play helped the Bankers to a great start in the opening quarter as they led Taiwan Beer 22-17.
That was it as far as the Bankers' offense was concerned because the Beer crew tightened up its defense a notch by holding the Bankers scoreless for over five minutes in the second quarter to enjoy a 37-27 lead heading into the half-time intermission.
To make matters worse for the Bankers, Taiwan Beer opened the second half by scoring eight straight in what turned out to be a 22-0 run over an eight-minute period between the second quarter and early third quarter to settle the game.
Even though the Bankers managed to put 21 points on the board in the final quarter it was too little too late as they lost for the fourth time in a row.
Ho Sho-cheng led all scorers with 21 points for Taiwan Beer to pick up the scoring slack on a night top scorer Lin "the Beast" Chih-jeh was not at his sharpest.
As for Bankers, even a 46-38 rebounding edge was not enough to make up for the poor second quarter that dug them into a hole too deep for them to climb out of.
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