Luo "the Natural" Hsin-liang scored 18 points and Chou Jung-san racked up seven assists on his debut for Taiwan Beer as they stormed past the Azio Eagles 95-72 at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium on Friday evening.
Chou, the former backcourt tandem for Taiwan's national team helped Taiwan Beer to its third straight victory.
"It's just like old times," an excited Chou, who played for the ETTV Antelopes last season before joining Taiwan Beer in a player/coach role at the start of this season, said after the game.
Wish granted
His wish to join Luo on the court was granted by Taiwan Beer skipper Yen Jia-hua when Yen asked the 38-year-old to suit up for the game.
The contest began with Taiwan Beer greeting the Eagles (1-12) with an 18-4 run before the Eagles answered with a 13-4 run to close out the first quarter trailing 22-17.
Solid inside plays by Eagles center Jien Jia-hong kept the Beer crew from adding to its lead in an evenly fought second quarter as the first half came to an end with Taiwan Beer up 42-37.
Riding a monstrous 11-point third quarter by the Natural, Taiwan Beer finally gained some breathing room in the second half as it built a 15-point cushion heading into the fourth quarter.
From that point on, it was plain sailing for the Beer crew because it was able to get some easy buckets against an Azio pressure defense that was intended to force some turnovers. This resulted in leads as large as 28 points before the eventual final score of 95-72.
All twelve Taiwan Beer players took to the court in the game with eleven of them managing to score at least two points.
As for the Eagles, Jien's game-high 25 points was the lone highlight in a game in which they suffered another double-digit setback.
Dinos 90, Hunters 76
The Yulon Dinos easily overcame the Videoland Hunters in Game one on Friday evening with a 90-76 win to extend their winning streak to three matches.
Thirty-one third-quarter points by the Dinos would boost what was only a slim 39-33 first-half lead as they ran rings around the Hunters to take a 70-52 lead at the start of the fourth quarter.
Easy victory
That was more than ample for the three-time defending champions as they kept the lead at more than a dozen points for the rest of the matchon their way to an easy victory.
Jonathan Sanders was held to a season-low of five points in the game, despite taking down 12 rebounds for the Hunters.
The forward shot a dismal 2-for-13 from the floor with the Dinos' all-star center Tseng Wen-ding and big man Wu Chih-wei constantly providing an in-your-face defense to neutralize the Hunters offensive threat.
Five different Yulon players managed double-digit scores on the night with Chen "Airman" Hsin-an leading the way with 17 points.
Tseng chipped in 16 points and seven rebounds followed by sharp shooter Chou Shih-yuan's 13 and speedy guard Liu Sheng-yao's 12.
After starting off the season with an incredible 7-0 record, the Hunters have lost five of their last six.
Poor shooting from behind the three-point line was largely responsible for Friday's defeat as the Hunters shot an embarrassing 3-for-31 (less than 10 percent) from long range, compared to their usual 30 percent, to leave the Dinos with plenty of opportunities to pull away in the game.
RSS