Hsing Wu College bounced back nicely from an upset loss at home to Hualien’s National Donghwa University on Tuesday with a convincing 88-72 win over Taipei Physical Education College (TPEC) on Wednesday as first-round action in the University Basketball Association tournament continued at Hsing Wu in Linkuo, Taipei County.
Double-double performances by Lin Yu-yang and Wang Hao-gee — the former with a team-high 21 points and 11 boards, while the latter netted 16 points and 14 boards — proved too much for TPEC to handle as Hsing Wu vented their frustration from the night before by trouncing their opponents.
The hosts trailed TPEC by a point after the first quarter (21-22), before a tough man-to-man defense created some easy baskets to jumpstart their offense in the second quarter, giving Hsing Wu a comfortable 47-32 lead at halftime.
TPEC began the second half with a 10-2 run that pulled them to within seven of Hsing Wu, only to see a total defensive breakdown lead to a 17-3 run by Hsing Wu in the final quarter that put the game out of reach.
It was a big win for 4-3 Hsing Wu in terms of their chances of qualifying for the upcoming Elite Eight as three of their remaining four contests are against opponents with winning records.
“We needed this win more than they did,” Hsung Wu head coach Wang Jin-cheng said after the game.
NTCPE 85, FU JEN CATHOLIC 81
Upset-minded National Taiwan College of Physical Education (NTCPE) pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament so far with an 85-81 shocker against heavily-favored Fu Jen Catholic earlier on Wednesday to keep their chances alive at 3-4.
The future PE instructors from Taichung led the game virtually the entire way against Fu Jen Catholic, thanks to a great outing from Chiou Chi-wei, whose game-high 21 points, including a pair of tie-breaking free-throws in the closing seconds of the contest, helped his team pull off the upset.
After trailing for most of the game, Fu Jen Catholic managed to forced a tie at 75-75 on a clutch three-pointer by Lin Yi-fu with under a minute remaining, but Chiou calmly converted both of his free-throw attempts with 45 seconds left to start a run that sealed victory.
Wednesday’s other results:
• Chinese Culture University 95, National Donghwa University 39
• National Taiwan Normal University 102, National Taiwan Sports University 71
• Mingdao University 77, Diwan University 53
• National Taiwan University of Arts 95, National Kaohsiung Normal University 80
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