The Super Basketball League (SBL) made its first appearance in Yilan on Friday evening, with Kinmen Liquor defeating Bank of Taiwan 107-96 and Taiwan Beer humbling the previously red-hot Pure Youth Construction 87-78 at the National Yilan University Gymnasium.
The Distillers, who feature three former Yilan high school standouts in Kao Tien-lin, Wang Nan-kwei and Lin Chih-long, made the most of their home away from home by topping the century mark for just the second time this season as they defeated a Bankers squad that scored a season-high 96 points in a losing effort.
Wang’s five-for-eight shooting from behind the three-point line led a Kinmen perimeter attack that bombarded the Bankers defense by converting 16-of-26 three-point attempts to overwhelm Bank of Taiwan.
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
Shawn “the Hawk” Hawkins also had his usual 20-plus outing with a team-high 26 points and nine rebounds to keep up with his league-leading scoring average of 27.1 points per game.
After an evenly fought opening quarter that saw the Distillers take a narrow 26-24 lead, the game soon became all-Kinmen Liquor, with Wang and forward Cheng Ren-wei hitting three straight three-pointers to trigger what ended up being a 13-0 run that left the Bankers in their wake.
Kinmen Liquor increased their lead to as much as 20 points in the second half, before the Bankers came up with an 8-1 run late in the game to make the final losing margin more respectable.
US import Jeff Jones played his best game in a Banker uniform with a game-high 32 points and 14 rebounds to prove his worth despite the loss that set his team further back to a league-worst 1-13.
TAIWAN BEER 87, PURE YOUTH 78
Derek Stribling erupted with 29 points and Yang Jing-min added a further 20, as Taiwan Beer defeated Pure Youth Construction in Yilan on Friday night to improve their record to 7-6 for the season.
The Brew Crew made the most of a sloppy Builders defense by netting 21 points in each of the first two quarters to establish a 42-32 lead at halftime.
That was more than ample for them to secure victory, with Stribling scoring 11 of Taiwan Beer’s 27 in the third to widen the lead to 16.
Pure Youth managed to pull within five of the Brewers, with James Mao sparking a 15-4 run halfway through the fourth quarter, but it was too little, too late, however, as Taiwan Beer promptly slowed down the tempo of the game.
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