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SBL: Yulon Dinos down Taiwan Beer for two-win weekend

Back-to-back wins over worthy opponents boosted the Yulon Dinos' lead in the standings as they downed Taiwan Beer 81-65 at the Taipei County Sports Complex on Sunday following Saturday's 87-79 triumph over the dmedia Numen.

Chen "Airman" Hsin-an played a key role in guiding the three-time champs to a 2-0 weekend by scoring 23 points for the second-straight game, making the absence of injured all-star center Tseng Wen-ding a non-issue.

"It doesn't matter how well I do individually if the team doesn't win," Chen said after the Dino's second win. "I hope that we all recover quickly and have a full lineup come playoffs time."

With five games remaining before the postseason commences, Chen's club appear well on their way to a fourth regular season title in five years.

The highly anticipated showdown between the top squads in the league saw the beer crew pounding the ball inside against a "Tseng-less" Yulon defense, with Wu Dai-hao and Ha Hsiao-yuan combining for 13 first-quarter points. The Dinos, meanwhile, relied on the "Airman" and veteran guard Chen Chih-chung's outside shooting for the bulk of their scoring.

After Chen Hsin-an's buzzer-beating three gave the Dinos a slender 21-20 advantage to end the first quarter, Taiwan Beer went on a 11-2 run to reclaim a 31-23 lead midway through the second.

That was when the Dinos decided to take their game up a notch by rolling out 10-straight points to close out the half leading 40-35.

The seesaw battle continued with the beer crew relying ons Lin "The Beast" Chih-jeh's three long-range threes in the third quarter to cut the deficit to two heading into the final quarter.

But that was as close as Taiwan Beer got to the Dinos as the men in white and green ran out of gas in the decisive fourth quarter to lose by a double-digit margin.

PURE YOUTH 89, TIGERS 68

Pure Youth Constructions shook off a nine-point first quarter with a strong second quarter effort to trounce the Dacin Tigers 89-68 on Sunday to swap places with the cats in the standings, moving from fifth to fourth.

With their postseason fate on the line, the builders looked to sophomore center Jien Jia-hong to flex his muscle inside the paint against a weaker Tigers front-three to free up the perimeter for outside threat Hong Chih-shan.

And other than the slow start, the strategy worked to perfection as Jien racked up a game-high 24 points while Hong hit 5 of 10 from behind the three-point line to tame the Tigers without much trouble.

Forward James Mao chipped in with 19 points and nine rebounds to make sure of the win.

For the struggling Dacin Tigers, a season that was once full of promise may ultimately yield nothing more than a fifth-place finish.

NUMEN 91, LEOPARDS 75

Thanks to shooting guard Lin Guan-luen's career-high 34-point effort, the second-place dmedia Numen breezed past the Taiwan Mobile Leopards in a 91-75 blowout on Sunday to keep pace with the league-leading Dinos.

The former long-time Taiwan Beer reserve, who opted to join the Numen at the start of the season in the hope of becoming a regular starter, has blossomed into a formidable offensive threat. Skipper Wu Jien-guo's decision to give Lin a crack at the starting five has paid dividends this season.

Lin's timely surge also provided some well deserved rest for all-purpose forward Jonathan Sanders, who still scored seven points and snatched a game-high 10 rebounds during the 26 minutes he played to end an impressive eight-game, 20-plus point scoring streak.
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