Wu Dai-hao’s pass to Wang Jien-wei that led to a fastbreak bucket on top of a foul in the final seconds of the game sealed the win for Taiwan Beer as they edged past the dmedia Numen 79-75 on Friday.
The win meant they swept the best-of-five semi-finals series 3-0.
Taiwan Beer opened the game with a pair of three-pointers from Yen Hsing-shu and Lin “the Beast” Chih-jeh against a slightly-dazed Numen defense to take a 6-2 lead before the Numen regrouped and resorted to stellar plays by all-purpose forward Jonathan Sanders and Ouyang Jin-hen against the defending champs to finish out the first quarter leading 23-22.
The seesawing continued well into the second quarter with “the Beast” leading the Taiwan Beer attack while Sanders dominated from close range with several strong rebounds and drives to the hoop to account for the bulk of the Numen’s offense.
It was not until the beer crew went on a 9-3 run in the final two minutes of the second quarter that they were able to enjoy a 43-37 lead at the half.
The Numen managed to cut the Taiwan Beer lead by four during the third with Sanders and Ouyang continuing to lead the dmedia attack while Wu did his best for Taiwan Beer with a great effort inside the paint to keep the dmedia defense on its toes.
With the game on the line in a hard-fought fourth quarter, both teams decided to go with their strength on offense with “the Beast” as the focal point of the Taiwan Beer half-court offense and Sanders being the go-to guy for the Numen.
Dmedia held its lead after Sanders converted on one of two free throw attempts with less than two minutes left.
But Wu answered on the ensuing possession with a turnaround jumper that gave Taiwan Beer a 76-75 lead.
Numen’s Cheng Ren-wei missed from the baseline on what would have been the go-ahead shot to set up Wu’s long pass to Wang that sealed the game.
Pure Youth 86 Dinos 84
Pure Youth Construction forced a Game 4 in their battle against the Yulon Dinos with an 86-84 win on Friday to avoid a clean sweep in the other semi-final series at the Taipei Arena.
Pure Youth center Jien Jia-hong nearly lost his cool against the Dinos’ Tseng Wen-ding during the third after he and Tseng tangled.
Both players were hit with an unsportsmanlike conduct foul but were allowed to remain in the game.
What was a 46-41 Dinos lead at the half turned into a 63-71 deficit by the end of the third quarter as the builders almost scored at will to rack up 30 points in the quarter.
Even though the Dinos chipped away at the Pure Youth lead they didn’t lead at any point in the fourth quarter.
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