Day 2 action continued in this year’s Hualien Probation Cup Basketball Tournament with the Elite Talent Exchange of the US topping Kinmen Liquor 92-82 at the Hualien County Sports Complex early yesterday afternoon.
Liu Cheng made his presence felt right away with a big showing in a Kinmen Liquor uniform, downing a game-high 29 points for the Distillers.
The No. 1 overall pick in this year’s Super Basketball League draft out of Changhua’s Ming Dao University scored the first seven points for Kinmen Liquor and knocked down a pair of three-pointers to demonstrate his exceptional range on offense.
The Distillers gave the bigger and more experienced Americans, made up of mostly former junior college players, a tough game as they matched the visitors -basket-for-basket for the entire first half, which ended in a deadlock at 42-42.
However, Elite Talent took advantage of a 32-point third quarter led by two big three’s from Jamal Smith and the strong play of Anthony Davis to claim a double-digit lead (74-63) through the third.
That was all the Americans needed to pick up their second win in as many days as they held off a rally attempt by the Distillers for the win.
Pure Youth 82, Leopards 69
Pure Youth Construction also made it two wins in a row with an 82-69 triumph over the Taiwan Mobile Leopards in the second game at the Hualien County Sports Complex yesterday.
The Builders took a 23-14 lead after the opening quarter with Terrence Dials netting 11 of their first 13 points in the contest.
The Detroit native, who starred for Ohio State University and played several seasons of professional ball in Europe before joining Pure Youth, definitely earned his place as the Builders’ team captain, with a dominating performance in the first quarter that was enough to lift his team past the Leopards, who remained winless at 0-3 through the first two days of play.
Taiwan Beer 87, Bank of Taiwan 63
Taiwan Beer followed their 96-72 win over the Malaysia on Wednesday with an 87-63 win over Bank of Taiwan to improve to a 2-0 record.
Newly signed Wu Yong-ren and Lai Guo-wei combined for 32 points in the game to give the Brewers’ offense an added dimension following the departure of big man Wu Dai-hao to the Chinese Basketball Association.
Other scores:
‧ Dacin Tigers 80, Malaysia 59
‧ Yulon Luxgens 79 Kinmen Liquor 72
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