More than 6,000 screaming fans packed the Taipei County Stadium in Sinjhuang on Saturday night to witness Taiwan Beer tame the Dacin Tigers in an 81-71 decision behind the stellar play of Lin "the Beast" Chih-jeh and Ho Sho-cheng.
The move away from the Super Basketball League's usual venue of Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium, which is being renovated, meant that more fans could enjoy the company of their favorite local basketball heroes as the league embarks on a month-long "road trip," which will include games in Miaoli and Tainan in the next five weeks.
Saturday's battle between the beer crew and Tigers saw the two squads play to a 21-all tie in a hard-fought first quarter before red-hot shooting by Ho helped the beer crew take a 37-33 lead heading into the halftime intermission.
The Tigers manage to fall within a deuce of Taiwan Beer by the end of the third quarter behind the strong play of point guard Wang Chih-chuin, whose penetration against the Taiwan Beer defense led to several easy buckets for the Tigers in the quarter.
But a near six-minute scoring drought by the Tigers in the game-deciding fourth quarter would leave them 10 points short of the beer crew as they dropped their second game of the week to remain winless in Sinjhuang.
Four different Taiwan Beer players scored in double digits on the night, with Lin's a game-high 25 and Ho's 23 accounting for more than half of the brewers' total points.
Veteran Shang Wei-fan also chipped in 14 points and Luo "the Natural" Hsin-liang had 10 to keep Taiwan Beer on the winning track.
Antelopes 66, Dinos 83
The Yulon Dinos ended their two-game slide with a convincing 83-66 rout of the ETTV Antelopes on Saturday afternoon to remain atop the league with a 16-6 record.
Chen "Airman" Hsin-an showed why he is still the best player in the business by netting a game-high 23 points in just 30 minutes of floor time to lead the defending champs past the Antelopes in the big win.
The "twin-towers" for the Antelopes -- power forward Delvin Thomas and center Wu Dai-hao -- were no match for Chen, who took them head-on on more than one occasion.
The Dinos opened by racing out to a 25-16 lead in the first quarter before padding that lead by eight more points in an all-Dinos second quarter to enjoy a 45-28 cushion at the half.
Even though the Antelopes would play the Dinos a bit tougher in the second half, they were never able to solve the quickness shown by the Dinos' frontcourt or a defense that held them to less than 20 points in three of the four quarters, making the eventual loss a foregone conclusion long before the final buzzer.
Hunters 82, Bank of Taiwan 64
The Videoland Hunters sent the Bank of Taiwan to their 10th straight loss with an 82-64 win that saw the bankers beaten in every facet of the game.
Scoring early and often, the Hunters took a 22-10 lead after the first quarter and upped it by three during a more competitive second quarter to end the first half with a 44-29 advantage.
The Hunters continued their dominant form in the second half with a lineup that consisted of mostly reserve players, who were put in to gain valuable playing time in preparation for the upcoming playoffs.
Jonathan Sanders had a big day off the glass with 16 rebounds to complement his game-high 21 points against a shorthanded bankers' interior defense.
The US forward, who is an expert in gaining the inside position necessary to grab anything that bounces off the rim, more than doubled the rebound total from the next-best player on either team, who had only seven.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
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