Wasting leads as large as 23 points in the second half, the Dacin Tigers allowed Kinmen Liquor to make a comeback and force Sunday’s game at the Hsinchu Municipal Gymnasium into overtime before regaining the upper hand to win it 100-96.
The win not only nipped a two-game slide for the defending champs, but also maintained their lead over the resurgent Yulon Luxgens at a game.
After a closely contested first quarter that resulted in a narrow 24-23 lead for the Tigers, they erupted for 29 second-quarter points to lead 53-30 at the half.
The Distillers rallied with an outstanding second-half effort by forwards Cheng Ren-wei and Shawn Hawkins to briefly take the lead late in the game until Tigers’ center Byron Allen sent the game into extra time.
“It was a big win for us, given that we had already lost two this week,” Dacin head coach Chiou Da-tsong said after the game.
Two of his players, Lin Yi-hui and Allen, reached the 20-point scoring plateau, with the former netting 22 and the latter pocketing 20.
Even though Kinmen Liquor had three players with 20-plus points, the final five minutes proved too much to bear for an overworked crew, in which three individuals put in nearly 43 minutes of playing time each.
LUXGENS 76, PURE YOUTH 70
The Yulon Luxgens made it seven wins in a row with a triumph over Pure Youth Construction on Sunday to trail the top-ranked Dacin Tigers by a lone game in the standings.
Tseng Wen-ding and point guard Chen Chih-chung combined to orchestrate a 10-0 run in the decisive fourth that gave the three-time champs the lead for good.
The Builders played three quarters of sound basketball, taking leads as large as eight points in the third before falling victim to a fourth-quarter surge by the Luxgens to suffer the loss.
TAIWAN BEER 84, LEOPARDS 76
Yang Jing-min scored a game-high 26, while Wu Dai-hao added another 20 mostly from inside the paint as Taiwan Beer went on to defeat the Taiwan Mobile Leopards on Sunday to finish off the weekend with a perfect 2-0 record.
Although US import Derek Strubling failed to reach his usual 20-plus points, he was able to attract enough attention from the Leopards defense to free up the middle of the paint for Wu and Yang to do the necessary damage.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
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