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SBL: Favorites dominate first-round of SBL playoff action

Favorites continued their dominance in first-round playoffs action of the Super Basketball League with the Yulon Dinos tripping up Pure Youth Constructions in an 88-75 final and Taiwan Beer humbling the dmedia Numen 101-74 at the Taipei Arena (Taipei Dome) on Wednesday evening.

The victory by the Dinos and Taiwan Beer gave each team a commanding 2-0 lead in their respective best-of-five series, making the championship round matchup looking more and more like a rematch from two years ago in which the Dinos won by an overwhelming 4-1 margin.

Wednesday night’s contest saw the Dinos jumped to a great start with a 12-4 run in the opening minutes before they closed out the first quarter with a 22-16 lead.

Pure Youth would not be intimidated by the three-time champs as it fought back with an impressive second quarter that featured several strong drives to the hoop by forward Lin Jin-bang while guards Chen Shih-jeh and Hong Chih-shan connected from the perimeters to end the first half in a 42-all draw.

That was the extent that these young builders were able to hang with the Dinos as the regular-season champs turned their games up a notch in the second half with five combined three-pointers by Cheng Chih-chung and Lu Cheng-rue to spark a 23-point third before Tseng Wen-ding took over the game during the final quarter with a dozen points to seal the win.

Five different players scored in double-digits for the Dinos, led by Tseng’s game-high 17.

As for the builders, who placed four players in double-digit scoring, the intensive first half might have been too taxing on their young bodies as they fell short in the second half over a losing cause.

The win by the Dinos might have put them on the verge of clinching the series, but it cost them dearly as Lin Hsueh-lin suffered a sprained left ankle during the third quarter that would remove the speedy guard from the lineup the rest of the postseason.

Taiwan Beer 101, Numen 74

Taiwan Beer made it two in a row against the dmedia Numen with fine outings from Lin “the Beast” Chih-jeh and Wu Dai-hao for the second straight night en route to a 101-74 blowout win at the Taipei Arena on Wednesday.

The potent scoring tandem for the defending champs racked up 27 and 18 points respectively against an overmatched dmedia defense that had the beer crew enjoying double-digit leads virtually the entire game.

Even though dmedia managed to put the ball in top scorer Jonathan Sanders’ hands more often compared to Tuesday night’s opener, which gave the American forward 22 points and a dozen rebounds on the night, it was not nearly enough to translate into a win for them since their other scoring threat Ouyang Jing-hen was held to a lone point in nearly 20 minutes of play, well short of his 19.4 average during the regular season.

Failure to win the rebounding battle for the second straight night, with a 31-49 deficit, also made it more difficult on the Numen since they were usually the team that held the rebounding edge during the regular season.

Yulon Dinos 95, Pure Youth 87

Chen “Airman Hsin-an made a strong push for the season MVP bid by racking up 18 points and a dozen rebounds on a magnificent outing to pace the three-time champs for the all-important first win in the best-of-five first-round action in Taipei on Tuesday.

Also starring for the Dinos were veteran point guard Chen Chih-chung who netted a team-high 21 points with four assists and slasher Yang Tseh-yi who ran the Dinos fastbreak against a young builders’ squad to near-perfection on several occasions.
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