The favorites took their respective games in the Super Basketball League on Saturday with the top-ranked Yulon Dinos cruising past the last-place Bank of Taiwan in a 93-83 decision, the dmedia Numen topping the Dacin Tigers 106-98, and Taiwan Beer downing the Taiwan Mobile Leopards by a 70-56 margin at the Taipei County Sports Complex.
Still missing the service of top scorer Chen "Airman" Hsin-an to a knee injury, the Dinos went with a balanced attack that placed six players in double-digit scoring to get the job done. Leading the way for the three-time champs were Chen Chih-chung and Chou Hong-yu, with 16 points each.
The contest began with the Dinos hitting three straight three-pointers to jump to an 11-4 start. But the bankers quickly regrouped with three three's of their own by Chen Hsuen-shiang to take a surprising 29-28 lead at the end of a fast-paced first quarter.
Both teams traded leads early on in a physical second quarter before the Dinos skidded ahead by going on a 7-0 run to close out the half with a 54-48 lead.
Even though the bankers played the Dinos tough in a hard-fought third, they were outmanned and outgunned in the end by a Yulon squad that was nine-man deep even without the Airman.
Numen 106, Tigers 98
Behind a triple-double effort by Jonathan Sanders, the dmedia Numen tamed the Tigers in a high-scoring match to keep pace with Dinos in the latest standings.
The American racked up 33 points, ten rebounds, and a dozen assists in his third triple-double outing of the season, making it look too easy at times against the Tien Lei-less cats.
Dmedia took a 24-15 lead after one quarter of play and upped its leads to 20 points before holding off the Tigers' fourth-quarter rally to preserve the victory.
In addition to Sanders' monstrous game, teammates Ouyang Jing-hen and Wang Nan-guei also came up big by hitting 10 of 14 shots from the field on a 21-point night and nailing five three's for 15 points respectively to complement Sanders' triple-double.
Inability to contain Sanders ultimately cost the Tigers the game as they dropped to 11-16 for the season, on the verge of being eliminated from the playoffs for the first time in five years.
Taiwan Beer 70, Leopards 56
Taiwan Beer snapped a three-game losing streak by handling the Leopards convincingly in a 70-56 win to regain its confidence with the postseason rapidly approaching.
The victory also avenged an embarrassing loss to the Leopards the last time the two met when Taiwan Beer netted a season-low 58 points.
Swingman Ho Sho-cheng took charge early on with nine points to help Taiwan Beer establish a 22-14 lead after the first quarter.
An 11-4 run by the beer crew early in the second quarter padded their lead to 33-18 before the Leopards countered with four long-range three's in a 14-2 run to trail by three (32-35) at the half.
Taiwan Beer then kicked their game up a notch to keep the lead in double-digits the rest of the way.
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