The Taiwan Mobile Cloud Leopards bounced back from a blowout loss on Friday with a narrow 81-78 come-from-behind win over the Dacin Tigers at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City yesterday afternoon to even their record for the weekend at 1-1.
Su Hsiang-yi’s strong drive to the hoop with 30 seconds remaining in the game broke a 78-all tie to put the Leopards ahead for good. It was the biggest shot of the game for the Taiwan Mobile point man against his former team. He finished with 18 points on the day, second only to fellow center Ryan Wright’s team-high 21 points, to help the underdogs pull off the upset over the Tigers.
Eleven first-quarter points by Lin Yi-hui set the tone early for Dacin, who came out firing with 23 points in the opening frame in search of their second win in the past seven. The Tigers seemed well on their way to doing just that as they increased their lead to as much as nine points in the third quarter before an 11-2 run by the Leopards tied up the game.
Photo courtesy of Bros Sports Marketing
The Tigers retook the lead by three points early in the fourth, but ran into a world of trouble against Su and Wright as the inside-out tandem for Taiwan Mobile combined for 14 of their team’s 24 points in the final quarter to take the victory.
Trailing by three, Dacin had a chance to tie the game with Tien Lei attempting a long three-pointer. However, the top scorer for the Tigers could not connect on the opportunity and the team were forced to settle for their sixth loss in seven.
PURE YOUTH 110, LUXGENS 84
Top-ranked Pure Youth Construction roughed up the Yulon Luxgens with a tremendous second half to turn a two-point halftime deficit into an electrifying 110-84 win in the first game in Sinjhuang yesterday afternoon.
The win not only avenged an embarrassing defeat to the Luxgens three weeks ago, which nipped a nine-game winning streak for the Builders, it also widened their lead over the second-place Luxgens to a season-high four games.
Lin Tsong-ching led a foursome of Pure Youth scorers with 20 or more points, erupting for 17 in the second half to propel the Builders past the four-time champs. It was the first time a team have scored more than 100 points this season, taking the league-leaders to a new high in total offensive output as they look to finish out the final third of the season strong.
TAIWAN BEER 82, BANK OF TAIWAN 78
Taiwan Beer nearly squandered a four-point lead in the final minute of the day’s last contest, but they managed to hold on to defeat a diehard squad from Bank of Taiwan in an 82-78 final for the Brew Crew’s second victory in as many days.
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
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