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Dinos honor fallen icon with victory in Hualien

Yang Ching-min, right, of Taiwan Beer jumps as Yang Che-yi of the Yulon Dinos tries to block in Game 2 of the Hualien Probation Basketball Invitational Tournament on Wednesday. The Dinos won 85-80. PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES

The Yulon Dinos honored the memory of team icon Chien Yi-fei, who passed away earlier this week following a stroke and a long battle with nasopharyngeal cancer, by defeating Taiwan Beer 85-80 in Game 2 of the Hualien Probation Basketball (HPB) Invitational Tournament on Wednesday.

The highly anticipated match between the three-time SBL champion Dinos and Taiwan Beer, the defending HPB champs, was all Taiwan Beer at first as they scored the game's first eight points. The Dinos overcame the slow start and actually led by as many as 15 midway through the second quarter behind the strong play of forward Chen "Airman" Hsin-an.

Down by 20 with less than eight minutes remaining in the game, the beer crew turned their game up a notch with outside threats Ho Sho-cheng and the newly joined Yang Jing-min hitting several jumpers from the perimeter to bring their team to within five of the Dinos.

That was as close as Taiwan Beer came, with top scorer Lin "the Beast" Chih-jeh committing a key turnover to halt what had been a 10-3 run, handing the Dinos the game in the end.

Tigers 75, Japan 66

Chen Tzu-wei's clutch three with less than 40 seconds left in the game put the Dacin Tigers ahead 71-66 as they held on to top the Ryukyu Golden Kings of Japan's BJ League in a 75-66 triumph on Wednesday evening.

The soft-spoken Tigers forward, who has come a long way from being a member on the Dacin practice squad to his current spot on starting five for skipper Chiou Da-tsung, nailed the long-range bomb that gave his team some breathing room against a tough Japanese rally before they hit the free throws down the stretch to pocket the competition's first win.

While Chen might have gotten the job done for the Tigers, all eyes were on their No. 1 scorer and crowd favorite Tien Lei, who made his first appearance in nearly six months after missing this year's Jones Cup to nurse a hand injury he had sustained during the SBL Finals.

Tien did not disappoint, scoring a team-high 17 points in the game to give the Tigers fans high hopes for the SBL season.

Dmedia 70, Afghanistan 69

Ou-Yang Chin-hehn's buzzer-beating three-pointer made the difference in Dmedia's (formerly the ETTV Antelopes) battle against Team Afghanistan as the local hosts overcame a late-game deficit to run away with the thrilling win.

In other games it was:

* Japan 96, Philippines 79

* South Korea 96, Malaysia 56
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