Yang “Amis Warrior” Jing-min awoke with an 18-point second half, while Kibwe Trim was one rebound shy of a 20-20 effort as Taiwan Beer shook off the red-hot pursuit of Bank of Taiwan in the third quarter to run away with an 81-72 victory at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City yesterday afternoon.
It was the fourth straight game that the Amis standout scored at least 18 points, giving last week’s Player of the Week even more to cheer about as his team looks to secure a post-season berth with a win against the Yulon Luxgens this evening.
The win also soothed the pain of the Brew Crew’s historic loss from the night before in which they scored a record-low 47 points in an upset loss to Kinmen Kaoliang, a game Taiwan Beer thought they would win easily.
Photo courtesy of the SBL
“We really needed a win to get over [the terrible loss],” Taiwan Beer skipper Yen Jia-hua said after the game yesterday.
His troops might have been caught looking ahead to tonight’s showdown against the Luxgens.
The Bankers surprised many by opening the game with a 20-point first quarter to take a 20-16 lead, but quickly returned to their typical last-place form in the second quarter as they were held to just eight points to trail Taiwan Beer 30-28 at the half.
That was as close as they got as the Brew Crew came on strong in the third quarter behind 23 combined points from Yang and Trim, to lead by eight en route to a comfortable victory.
Even though the Bankers did not lose by as much as they have on several previous occasions, with Chuang Hsiao-wen, Chen Hsuan-shiang and Hsu Chih-chiang doing the damage on offense, they showed that they are still quite a ways from being able to consistently play against a top-tier club.
LUXGENS 67, KINMEN KAOLIANG 56
Tempers flared in the tough, physical match between the Yulon Luxgens and Kinmen Kaoliang as four players were ejected for fighting in the second game in Sinjhuang late yesterday afternoon.
Chou Bo-cheng of the Luxgens got tangled up with the Distillers’ Shang Wei-fan in the fourth quarter, after which the Yulon rookie swung his arm and taunted Shang. That triggered Kinmen’s Chou Tzu-hua to approach Chou Bo-cheng, which led to another confrontation.
Three of the Yulon players ended up being ejected from the game, along with Kinmen’s Chou Tzu-hua.
PURE YOUTH 84, TIGERS 75
Pure Youth Construction put up 28 points in the opening frame and held on to defeat the Dacin Tigers by nine points in the third game in Sinjhuang last night to win their second straight game in as many days.
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