Yang Jing-min’s game-turning three-pointer with time expiring and a man in his face miraculously lifted Taiwan Beer past the Dacin Tigers 67-65 at the Taipei County Gymnasium in Sinjhuang last night to give the Brew Crew a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five playoff series in the SBL.
The versatile forward who scored a team-high 13 in the first half received a long pass from fellow Amis tribesman Lin “the Beast” Chih-jeh from beyond the three-point arc along the baseline and launched the game-winner with Dacin’s Byron Allen all over his face.
“Just like coach drew it on the board during our final timeout, we had Chih-jeh taking the ball strong to the hoop to set me up for the final shot,” Yang said after the game, referring to Taiwan Beer’s attacking scheme for the final strike.
The Amis duo was the main reason that Taiwan Beer managed to run away with the win after blowing a 17-point lead at the half.
Taiwan Beer opened the game with Hao Hsiao-yuan scoring seven of his team’s 18 first-quarter points from close range to take a 18-16 lead after one quarter of play.
Sloppy ball handling on the part of Tigers, coupled with several clutch shots by Taiwan Beer, increased its lead to a seemingly comfortable 44-27 at the half with Yang and the Beast accounting for 22 of the Brew Crew’s 44 total points.
That was when the Tigers decided to kick their games up a notch with Chang Chih-fong leading an amazing 13-0 run over the first five minutes of the third quarter to reduce the deficit to four before Taiwan Beer settled back in to close out the quarter still leading 53-45.
The Tigers would continue to chip away at Taiwan Beer’s lead with Allen dominating inside the paint and Yueh Ying-li hitting from the perimeters to tie the game at 58-all with under six minutes to play.
After Taiwan Beer went back ahead by three with the Beast leading the attack for the next three minutes, the Tigers would rally again to take a 65-64 lead with 10.9 seconds to play on Allen’s put-back basket following a missed free-throw, setting the stage for Yang’s late-game heroics.
The two teams will have today off to prepare for tomorrow night’s Game 4 in Sinjhuang scheduled to start at 6pm where it’s do-or-die for the Tigers as another loss would eliminate them from the best-of-five series.
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