Both favorites won their games in the Super Basketball League (SBL) on Friday evening with the Yulon Luxgens topping the Taiwan Mobile Leopards 70-64 and Kinmen Liquor humbling the Bank of Taiwan 86-63 at the Miaoli County Sports Complex.
Chou Shih-yuan and Yang Tseh-yi bombarded the Leopards from behind the three-point arc by going a combined 7-for-11 to complement another fine all-around game by big man Tseng Wen-ding, who racked up 11 points, 16 rebounds, five assists and five blocked shots along with four steals to lead the Luxgens.
The win not only broke a three-way tie to give the Luxgens sole possession of the lead in the standings, but also made the departure of former team icon Chen Hsin-an to China’s Chinese Basketball Association a distant memory.
“We did not do anything differently as far as gearing up the offense for the three-pointers, but the shots just kept on coming up so I took them,” Chou said after the game.
Playing without one of their top scorers, Ouyang Jing-hen, because of an injury, the Leopards hung with the Luxgens in a sloppy first half that saw them trailing by only four heading into the halftime intermission. But they dug themselves into a deep hole by letting the Luxgens go on an 11-0 run at the start of the second half that upped the deficit to a double-digit one, making it virtually impossible to overcome even with 27 points in the fourth quarter.
The Leopards also lost their imported player Antonio Grant late in the third quarter to an injury. Grant would leave the game with 10 points and a dozen boards.
KINMEN LIQUOR 86,
BANK OF TAIWAN 63
Trouble continued for Bank of Taiwan despite the addition of Jeff Jones as it succumbed to Kinmen Liquor in an 86-63 decision on Friday to remain winless at 0-5 for the season.
The much anticipated debut for Jones did not live up to its billing as the US forward was only effective in the first few minutes of the contest when the bankers led Kinmen Liquor 5-0.
But over-reliance on Jones, in addition to a knee injury that took top scorer Hsu Chih-chiang out of the game toward the end of the first quarter, would quickly send the hapless bankers back to their original form as they allowed Kinmen Liquor back in the game to close out the first quarter in a 19-all tie.
With the momentum back on its side, Kinmen Liquor managed to skid ahead 42-35 at the half and upped its lead to 11 (66-55) by the end of the third before pulling away by more than 20 to end the game.
Five players scored in double-digits for Kinmen Liquor, with Shawn “the Hawk” Hawkins and Cheng Ren-wei netting 20 points apiece to lead the way.
As for the bankers, only Chen Yu-chih and Jones hit the double-digit mark in scoring, with Jones shooting a dismal 4-for-14 from the free throw line to dampen what would otherwise be an acceptable Taiwan debut.
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