Hsu "the Fool" Hao-cheng's clutch three-pointer with 4.1 seconds remaining propelled Taiwan Beer to an 86-84 win over the Videoland Hunters on Wednesday evening, as the beer crew took the best-of-five, first round series by a 3-1 margin to qualify for the upcoming Championship Finals.
"That was definitely the biggest shot I've ever taken in my career ... and it's simply awesome," said the reserve guard, who scored a season-high 19 points in the game.
The sellout crowd of over 4000 at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium, mostly avid supporters of the ever-popular beer crew, had their wishes granted as the third-seeded brew crew topped the favored Hunters, who held a commanding 4-1 record in the five games against the brewers during the regular season.
Seesaw battle
The seesaw battle between the two squads had the Hunters enjoying a lead as large as ten points in the opening quarter before the beermen answered with a mini run of their own to finish out the quarter trailing 25-21.
Then came a strong second quarter by Taiwan Beer, led by top scorer Lin "the Beast" Chih-jeh's 13 points in the quarter, to help the beer crew close out the half with a 47-46 advantage.
Neither team was able to go up by more than three in an even third quarter, with the Fool taking the ball strong to the basket on several hard drives and the Beast hitting a pair of threes for Taiwan Beer, while Yang Tseh-yi picked up the scoring slack by accounting for ten of the Hunters' 17 points that brought the game to a 63-63 tie after three quarters.
The Hunters would eventually go up by four (81-77) with Yang hitting from the perimeter and all-purpose man Jonathan Sanders slamming down two monstrous dunks during the fourth quarter in what seemed would be a runaway win for them.
But failure to hit the big shots with the game on the line, in addition to letting Taiwan Beer gain two critical offensive rebounds ultimately cost the Hunters the game and the series as they fell short by two.
Scoring more than 30 points for the third straight game, the Beast racked up 34 to lead the beer crew to their second straight Championship-Final appearance.
As for the Hunters, Yang's team-high 33 points was the lone highlight on the night as their top scorer Sanders was limited to 12 points and nine rebounds, well short of his 23.5-point and 16.3-rebound regular season average.
Dinos 77, Tigers 74
The Yulon Dinos forced a decisive Game 5 in their first-round action against the Dacin Tigers by claiming Game 4 77-74 on Wednesday night.
With their backs against the wall after dropping the first two games of the series by a single point, the defending champs finally showed their true colors by taking Game 3 convincingly in a 111-93 win on Sunday before knotting the series up at 2-2 with Wednesday night's nail-biter.
Crucial pair
Lee Hsueh-lin's pair of free throws with 8.1 seconds remaining gave the Dinos a 77-74 lead after the Tigers had scored four straight to pull within one in the final minute of play.
Red-hot shooter Chen Tzu-wei actually got the shot off with time running out in what would have been a game-tying three-pointer for the Tigers. But the shot was a tad short, and the ball bounced off the rim to give the Dinos the thrilling win.
The contest began with neither club able to achieve the kind of offense that was featured in the high-scoring Game 3, as they settled for 27 combined points with the Tigers leading 16-11 after the opening quarter.
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