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SBL: Chen leads Scarlet Knights to victory in All-Star Game

Jonathan Sanders dunks blindfolded to win the slam dunk contest at the Taipei Arena on Saturday night. PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES

Chen "Airman" Hsin-an's 20 points and six rebounds, capped by a thunderous slam in the closing seconds of the game, led the Scarlet Knights to a 101-94 win over the White Knights in the Super Basketball League's All-Star Game at the Taipei Arena on Saturday night.

The Yulon Dinos power forward, widely considered the most dominant player in the league, was named the game's Most Valuable Player for his all-around contribution to the Scarlet Knight's impressive victory.

"I would like to thanks the fans for their support in coming out to cheer us on," Chen said after the game while posing with the MVP trophy and a check for NT$16,888 in prize money.

Behind several big three-pointers from the perimeters, the Scarlet Knights, made up of the top players from the Dinos, the Dacin Tigers, Pure Youth Constructions and the Bank of Taiwan, took a 23-19 lead after the opening quarter.

They increased their lead to 57-46 at the half, thanks largely to six more long-range bombs during the second quarter.

Monstrous dunks from Jonathan Sanders and stellar shooting from Wu Yong-ren allowed the White Knights (consisting of players from Taiwan Beer, the Taiwan Mobile Leopards and the dmedia Numen) to tie the game at 80-all early in the fourth quarter.

But the outcome of the game was never in doubt, as the Scarlet Knights soon regained a sizable advantage and defended it for the rest of the game.

Four players scored in double-digits for the victors, with Su Yi-jeh (Tigers), Chang Chih-fong (Tigers) and Hsu Chih-chiang (Bank of Taiwan) each chipping in a dozen to go along with Chen's 20.

Sanders (Numen) topscored with 22 points and 19 rebounds, but it was not enough as the White Knights fell short by seven.

Taiwan Beer trio Ho Sho-cheng, Lin "The Beast" Chih-jeh and Wu Dai-hao contributed 17, 11 and 10 points respectively.

SLAM DUNK CONTEST

In the highly anticipated slam dunk contest, a blindfolded Sanders converted on a pair of tremendous throw-downs to outperform fellow teammate Lee Jung-wei and Pure Youth's Doug Creighton.

Sanders, the runner-up in last year's contest, dunked his way from a six-man preliminary round into a three-man final before claiming the title and NT$16,888 in prize money.

THREE-POINT SHOOTOUT

The Leopards' Wu Cheng-yu found his range for a record-tying 22 points to win the three-point shooting contest.

Wu, who last won the title three seasons ago, barely made it into the final round with 18 points before peaking in the final to beat out three other contestants. He was awarded a total of NT$22,000 for his effort: NT$1,000 for each point scored.

Two-time defending champ Lee Hsueh-lin of the Dinos just missed out on a chance to make it three in a row as his 17-point effort in the preliminaries was one shy of the qualification mark.
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