Hsu Chih-chiang scored a game-high 27 points and John Vaudreuil added another 23 with 14 rebounds, as Bank of Taiwan humbled the Yulon Luxgens by a 74-67 margin at the Sinjhuang Gymnasium in New Taipei City last night for victory No. 9 of the year.
The win not only nipped a five-game losing skid for the Bankers, but also gave them a 4-1 record in their five regular season contests against the Luxgens, denying the defending champs a chance to clinch a postseason berth.
Yulon will now look to accomplish that with a win in this afternoon’s showdown versus the Taiwan Mobile Leopards.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
“I don’t know what the problem is for us against teams that are affiliated with public institutions this year,” Yulon head man Chang Hsueh-lei said after the game.
He was referring to his team’s combined dire 1-9 record against government-affiliated Taiwan Beer and Bank of Taiwan.
Yulon hold an otherwise a impressive 12-4 record against the rest of the teams in the league.
Yesterday’s hard-fought battle saw neither team able to hold leads greater than six points through the first three quarters.
It was not until Hsu and Vaudreuil’s late-game surge sparked a 12-2 run for the Bankers that they were able to establish an insurmountable lead against a feisty Yulon in the final minutes.
“We are just playing for pride at this point since the playoff is out of the question for us, but I am so happy that our players still played as hard as they did,” Bank of Taiwan skipper Lai Liang-chung said after the game.
His team hung in with the defending champs for three quarters before erupting for 24 points in the fourth quarter to prevail in the end.
Three different players scored in double-figures for the Bankers, with Hsu and Vaudreuil accounting for 50 of their 74 total points.
Four different players managed double-digit scores for the Luxgens.
TIGERS 115, KINMEN KAOLIANG 85
The Dacin Tigers had little trouble against Kinmen Kaoliang in the second game in Sinjhaung last night, bombarded their opponents with a team-best 115 points to run away with the victory.
Dacin shot nearly 70 percent from the field (30-for-44) in the first half against a non-existent Kinmen Kaoliang defense to score a record-high 73 points en route to the blowout victory.
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