The red-hot Pure Youth Construction continued their recent success by downing the Dacin Tigers 84-67 at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City last night with another outstanding offensive showing.
The win not only extended the Builders’ current win streak to nine games, but more importantly, it gave them sole possession of the lead atop the standings as the slumping Tigers fell out of first place in the standings for the first time this season.
Player of the Week winner Quincy Davis dominated the inside the paint from the get-go, netting nine of his team’s first 11 points with two thunderous dunks in the opening minutes en route to a game-high 19 points. He also showed off his range by nailing a three-pointer from long range just to keep the Dacin defenders honest.
Photo: Courtesy of the SBL
The showdown between the top two clubs in the league lived up to its hype in the early going with Pure Youth grabbing an early 11-6 lead, before the Big Cats fought back to tie the game at 11-11 with three minutes remaining in the opening frame.
The Builders would reclaim a nine-point lead in the second quarter with Davis doing the damage inside, while shooting guard Tso Tsong-kai converted from the perimeter. However, the Tigers’ Noel Felix and Tien Lei teamed up for several clutch baskets to keep the deficit to fewer than 10 points to close out the half trailing 38-30.
Three three-pointers by Doug Creighton led the way for Pure Youth in the third quarter as they opened up leads as large as 21 points, before the Tigers countered again with Chen Tzu-wei pouring in nine to make it an 11-point game (59-48) by the end of the quarter.
That was as close as the Tigers got as the Builders opened the fourth with a 10-0 run that quickly upped their lead back to more than 20 points, sealing the outcome of the contest long before the final buzzer sounded.
CLOUD LEOPARDS 70, BANKERS 56
The Taiwan Mobile Cloud Leopards fought off a resilient Bankers’ squad with great second-half effort, defeating Bank of Taiwan by a 14-point margin in the second game in Sinjhuang last night to improve to a 5-9 mark for the year.
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