The Super Basketball League (SBL) playoffs evened up yesterday, as both of the losing teams on Saturday won to pull the two series even at 1-1. The Yulon Dinos beat the Videoland Hunters 77-72 in the first match at Taipei Gymnasium yesterday, backed by a strong 18 points from Chen Hsin-teh. In the late game, the Dacin Tigers defeated Taiwan Beer 84-78.
On Satruday, Lin "the Beast" Chih-jeh racked up 21 points to go along with Ho Sho-cheng's team-high 22 points to lift Taiwan Beer past the Dacin Tigers 83-70 in the opening game of the SBL Finals at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium.
The dynamic scoring duo for Taiwan Beer overcame a slow first half -- after which they trailed the Tien Lei-led Tigers by four -- by four by erupting for 30 points in the second half to give them an all-important Game 1 win in the best-of-seven series.
"Having another gun like Sho-cheng on top of `the Beast' really makes us very hard to defend against and I am glad we got the win," Taiwan Beer coach Yen Jia-hua said after the game.
"The game really boiled down to who had a deeper bench," Yen added.
After a hard-fought first quarter that ended with the Tigers leading 22-18, the game turned into a seesaw battle in an evenly played second quarter that ended with the Tigers leading 39-35 at the half.
Trailing by four, the men in the familiar green uniforms would open the third quarter with a 6-0 run that put them ahead by two before seven straight points by "the Beast" later in the quarter.
But Tien made sure that Taiwan Beer would not keep the lead for long as he scored four in a row to champion a 9-1 run that made the score 53-52 in favor of the beer men by the end of the third.
It took a 12-3 run midway through the fourth quarter on Taiwan Beer's part, led by "the Beast" and Ho's eight combined points to build a nine-point advantage as Taiwan Beer held on for the eventual win.
Hunters 95, Dinos 86
The Videoland Hunters had little trouble against the Yulon Dinos as they cruised past the defending champs in a 95-86 win earlier on Saturday for a Game 1 win in the best-of-five consolation round.
The Hunters opened the game with a 21-13 lead after the first quarter and padded their lead by five in another solid second quarter to end the first half with a 40-27 cushion.
That was more than plenty against a battered Dinos squad that might have still been emotionally drained from a tough loss to the Tigers.
That loss denied them a chance to make it into their fourth straight league finals in as many years.
Yang Tseh-yi led the Hunters with 21 points in the game while Lee Chi-yi chipped in 19 to rebound nicely from his slump.
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