Pure Youth Construction bounced back nicely from a tough loss to Bank of Taiwan on Saturday evening with a convincing 89-69 win over Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor at the Taipei Gymnasium last night for their 11th win of the season.
Chien Jia-hong and Hong Chih-shiang netted 10 points apiece in a 34-point fourth as the Builders outscored the Distillers 34-19 in the decisive quarter to run away with the big win.
“It was a great effort toward the end of the game on our part, unlike last night,” Pure Youth coach Hsu Jin-tseh said after the game, referring to his crew’s solid finish compared with a dismal fourth-quarter effort on Saturday that cost them the game against the Bankers.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Hong would end the night with a game-high 31 points, while Chien settled with 10 as they accounted for nearly half of the Builders’ total points.
Taking control of the boards for the Builders was Rashad Jones-Jennings, who took down 26 rebounds on the night to help his team enjoy a lopsided 58-37 edge on total rebounds.
Shawn “the Hawk” Hawkins poured in 28 points to lead a Kinmen Kaoliang attack that never seemed comfortable with its offensive flow the entire game, relying too much on the Hawk to keep the score ticking over.
LUXGENS 82, LEOPARDS 74
Jermaine Dailey made a strong case for his continued employment with the Yulon Luxgens last night by tying Lu Cheng-reu’s 19 points in an eight-point win over the Taiwan Mobile Leopards.
The newly arrived import from the US, who saw action for the first time on Saturday, is a replacement for the departed Tseng Wen-ding in an effort to resuscitate the struggling Luxgens.
Dailey came up big for the second straight game yesterday, scoring 19 with 15 boards to bring Yulon back to an even 8-8 mark before the Lunar New Year break.
Yulon actually trailed the Leopard by one (22-23) after the first quarter, before Dailey and Lu erupted for 17 combined points in a 28-14 run in the second quarter to take a comfortable 50-37 lead at the half.
The Leopards managed to pull within four points of the Luxgens in the fourth, with point guard Su Hsiang-yi championing a rally that nearly turned the tables, but that was as close as they got as the Luxgens scored the final four points of the game to come out on top.
TAIWAN BEER 89, TIGERS 83
Taiwan Beer vented the frustration of a loss to the Leopards on Saturday that nipped an eight-game winning streak by roughing up the Dacin Tigers to head into the Lunar New Year break on a high note.
The Tigers trailed by more than 20 in the second half, but fought back to cut the Brew Crews’ lead to just six in the closing seconds, nearly giving top-ranked Beer a scare right at the end.
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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