Chen Tzu-wei scored three game-turning three-pointers in the final quarter on Sunday to rally the Dacin Tigers from three down to beat South Korea 76-71 for the 2007 Hualien Probation Basketball Invitational Tournament title.
The soft-spoken Tigers forward who also hit two clutch three's the night before to help his team reach Sunday's championship game also came up big with a monstrous block against top South Korean scorer Park Chan-hee late in the game that led to a fastbreak basket down the other end of the floor in the Tigers' emotional triumph.
The highly anticipated showdown between the top teams in Group A and B lived up to its billing in front of more than 4,000 screaming fans with a dramatic finish between an undefeated squad (4-0 in the preliminaries) from South Korea's Kyung Hee University taking on the 3-1 Tigers who needed a fourth-quarter comeback win on Saturday over Team Afghanistan to qualify for the title game.
Behind Tien Lei's 12-point first quarter, the Tigers hanged tough with the favored South Koreans in an evenly fought affair that saw the home hosts trailing 21-22.
Tien continued his red-hot shooting in the second quarter with eleven more points that sparked a 26-point quarter to give the Tigers a 47-39 advantage at the half.
The Tigers extended their lead by as much as eleven points early in the third quarter before the South Koreans strung together an 8-0 run to force a 58-all tie by the end of the third.
With the title on the line, neither team was able to take leads larger than three points during the early minutes of the fourth quarter until Chen's timely three's that gave the Tigers the lead for good to make sure that the championship trophy remained in Taiwan.
"It was a great execution of the game plan on our part; we knew we had to shut down their three's and we did just that," a pleased and much relieved Dacin skipper Chiou Da-tsung said after the win.
Dinos 95, Dmedia 85
The Yulon Dinos overcame a sluggish start that saw them trailing dmedia by as many as five towards the end of the first quarter before regaining their winning form the rest of the way to clinch the third-place finish with a 95-85 victory.
The defending champs ended the tournament on a high note after a defeat at the hands of South Korea in the preliminaries cost them their title.
Things might have turned out differently if the Dinos had the services of all-star center Tseng Wen-ding, who sat out the entire competition to nurse an injury that he hopes would heal in time for the upcoming SBL season.
Japan 96, Taiwan Beer 72
Short of three of its regular starters, Taiwan Beer fell victim to a tenacious Japanese attack as they dropped 96-72 in the battle for fifth-place on Sunday afternoon.
The Ryukyu Golden Kings of the Basketball Japan League took out the frustration caused by a tiebreak system that left them playing for fifth-place despite having identical records to the Tigers and dmedia in Group B's preliminary round.
They trounced Taiwan Beer in a game that was over long before the final buzzer.
Other scores:
? Afghanistan 82, Pure Youth 77
? Malaysia 81, Philippines 79
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