With the final spot for the Elite Eight on the line, National Taiwan College of Physical Education outdueled Hualien’s National Donghwa University 94-72 in the annual University Basketball Association (UBA) tournament at Mingdao University in Changhua on Monday to advance to the next round of play.
What should have been an evenly matched battle was dominated by National Taiwan Physical Ed, who took an early 25-11 lead in the opening quarter. They then held National Donghwa to nine meagerly points in the second en route to an easy victory.
Chiou Chi-wei led the attack with a game-high 24 points, while Yang Wei-hsin and Wu Chih-shiang netted 21 and 17 points respectively. The iron triad accounted for 62 of their team’s 94 points, keeping the National Donghwa defense off-balance for most of the game.
“A loss by us would have kept all three of the sports schools out of the second round and that would be a first,” a much relieved National Taiwan Physical Ed head coach Mai Tsai-chen said after the game.
The other two “sports schools” that he was referring to are National Taiwan Sports University and Taipei Physical Education College, both of which were eliminated from the next round prior to Monday’s play.
As for National Donghwa, the pressure associated with postseason play ultimately got to them as they entered unfamiliar territory, unable to solve the matchup zone defense that National Taiwan Physical Ed had instituted all game long.
“They [National Taiwan Physical Ed] really did a good job of shutting down our big guns,” National Donghwa skipper Lin Rue-han said after the game.
His crew had a 4-7 record in the 11-game first round — the same as Tainan’s Diwan University, which unlike Donghwa qualified to advance because they won the head-to-head competition.
NATIONAL KAOHSIUNG NORMAL 76, DIWAN UNIVERSITY 74
Knowing that the outcome of the game did not have any bearing on the tournament, Diwan University dropped a surprising decision 74-76 to its neighbors from Kaohsiung to settle with a 4-7 mark in the first round of play.
The win by the future teachers from Kaohsiung brought them out of the cellar as their 2-9 record, though identical to Taipei Physical Ed, was good enough for No. 11 as they won the head-to-head competition last Friday.
Monday’s other results:
• National Taiwan Normal University 96, Hsing Wu College 80
• Mingdao University 103, Taipei Physical Education College 82
• National Taiwan University of Arts 81, Fu Jen Catholic University 72
• Chinese Culture University 82, National Taiwan Sport University 78 (OT)
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