Action began at the Hualien Probation Cup Basketball Tournament on Wednesday afternoon with Shanxi Zhongyu of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) downing the CPBL’s Yulon Luxgens 91-76 at the Hualien County Sports Complex.
The five-day tournament that features eight squads from five different countries saw the Chinese visitors making the most of their size advantage over a smaller Yulon lineup by punching the ball inside the paint, with big men Lee Benson and Donta Smith combining for 47 of their 91 points to run away with the win in the opener.
Yulon actually played well enough for the first three quarters with back-court tandem Chen Chih-chung and Lee Hsueh-lin directing an offense that stayed with Shanxi Zhongyu and actually led them briefly in the early going of the final quarter.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
With the game on the line, however, the Luxgens proved no match for their bigger and stronger opponents, who went on a 19-2 run in the fourth quarter to run away with the win.
KINMEN LIQUOR 84, DACIN TIGERS 79
Kinmen Liquor bombarded a shorthanded Dacin Tigers squad with 14 three-pointers to win their first contest of the tournament 84-79 in Game 2 on Wednesday, starting their season on a high note.
Chen Jing-huan found his shooting touch from behind the three-point line early in the game and kept it the rest of the way with five three-pointers to lead a Kinmen perimeter game.
That was good news for top scorer Cheng Ren-wei, who found more space to operate in against a Tigers team that was missing all five regular starters as he connected for 25 points from the low post area in a solid showing.
Trailing by as many as 16 in the second half, the Tigers would rally and cut the deficit to as few as a deuce in the closing minutes of the contest.
Kinmen Liquor’s Hong Chi-chao came up with a crucial three-point play with under a minute remaining, however, to seal the win for Kinmen.
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