Overcoming a slow start in the first quarter, the Dacin Tigers promptly improved over the course of the game and went on to defeat Taiwan Beer 57-54 at the Taipei County Gymnasium last night, clinching the best-of-five playoff series by a 3-2 margin.
The win not only put the defending champs in the title series for the second straight year, but also avoided what would have been the quickest exit for a top-seeded team in the league’s seven-year history.
A poor 0-for-8 shooting from the field over the first five minutes of the contest set the Tigers back 0-8 in the early going.
But they were able to chip away at the Taiwan Beer lead despite committing ten first-quarter turnovers of their own to keep the deficit at a manageable five by the end of the first quarter before center Byron Allen erupted for eight in a 20-point second quarter to actually give the Tigers a 29-28 lead at the half.
Allen would end up with a game-high 14 points and a dozen rebounds to lead his club past the Brew Crew.
The two teams traded leads smaller than three in a seesaw affair over the first five minutes of the third quarter before the Tigers went on a 6-0 run to lead it 37-32 at the 4:52 mark in the third.
A timely surge by Taiwan Beer’s Derek Stribling with six points in the third while the rest of his team struggled to find its range from the field would cut the Tigers’ lead to two at the start of the fourth.
That was as close as the men in the familiar green would get as they continued to struggle from the perimeters with a sub-par 1-for-9 shooting from behind the three-point line in the decisive fourth, allowing the Tigers to increase their lead to as large as seven with under two minutes remaining to seal the win long before the final buzzer sounded.
Failure to secure the rebounds on the part of Taiwan Beer which led to several second-chance baskets for Tigers in the fourth also proved costly as they effectively melt down the clock late in the game to deny the Brew Crew any realistic opportunity to rally from behind.
The 111 combined scoring set a new low for scoring in a postseason contest, topping the previous low of 116 set by the former Sina Lions (Pure Youth Construction) and the Tigers in 2004.
The Tigers will face the Yulon Luxgens in the Championship Finals after the Luxgens defeated Pure Youth 76-69 in yesterday’s second playoff game.
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