Azio Eagles shock Yulon Dinos to end losing skid

Azio Eagles players congratulate each other after upsetting the Yulon Dinos in the Super Basketball League on Friday. The Eagles won 117-96. PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES

The Azio Eagles pulled off the upset of the year by trouncing the top-ranked Yulon Dinos in a stunning 117-96 win at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium on Friday evening to snap a five-game losing skid.

Riding sophomore center Jien Jia-hong's season-high 35 points and 16 rebounds, the last-place Eagles showed the defending champs that anything could happen on a basketball court by outplaying the Dinos in every facet of the game for the win.

While the victory was hard to come by for the Eagles, this one being only their third in 20 tries, they have come close to beating top-tier squads such as the Dacin Tigers or the Dinos over the past two weeks in games that resulted in narrow defeats due to late-game collapses.

That was not the case on Friday night as they poured on 36 points in the final quarter to put the game away.

"Well, it's hard to explain it, but instead of playing to preserve the lead like we had tried and failed in the past when we were up late in the game, we just went on about our offense like the lead wasn't even there," Eagles head coach Hsu Jin-tseh said after the game.

The contest began with the Eagles jumping to a surprising 33-22 lead after the first quarter with 11 of the 33 points coming from Jien.

Another solid effort by the second-year center with a dozen more points during the second quarter would give the Eagles a 56-42 cushion at the half.

The Dinos finally came alive in the third quarter with 24 points on offense to keep themselves from falling further behind.

But the three-time defending champs was unable to rally from deficits as large as 19 points.

Six Eagles players scored in double digits for the game with Jien leading the pack. Perimeter threat Tsou Tsong-kai added 18 more.

As for the Dinos, point guard and league MVP last month, Lee Hsueh-lin netted 25 in the game to lead a sluggish crew that clearly underestimated its opponents.

Taiwan Beer 89, Hunters 79

The Eagles were not the only underdogs with the last laugh on Friday as Taiwan Beer also prevailed against the Videoland Hunters in an 89-79 triumph for their first win in the four games against the Hunters this season.

Team icon Lin "the Beast" Chih-jeh erupted for 31 points in the game, 17 of which came during the fourth quarter, to lead Taiwan Beer past a hunting crew that had won all three of its regular season games prior to Friday.

The Beast also snagged 13 rebounds and stuffed in a couple of monster dunks in the game to bring the sellout crow of 4,000-plus to its feet.

After the Hunters took a 20-19 lead at the end of the opening quarter, Taiwan Beer would switch to a full-court press in the second quarter that forced several turnovers that quickly turned into easy points. Taiwan beer claimed a moderate 37-32 lead by the end of the first half.

Taiwan Beer continued its success in the second half after the Hunters had closed to within one early in the third on the strengths of clutch 3-pointers by power forward Wu Chih-yuan and veteran guard Luo "the Natural" Hsin-liang to keep the lead.

But when the Hunters hit 3-pointers in the final minutes of the fourth quarter against the Taiwan Beer reserves to reduce the lead to seven, coach Yen Jia-hua had to resort to sending in his starters to seal the win.