Taking advantage of a 16-5 run in the third quarter, Taiwan turned a five-point deficit at the half into a sizable cushion in the second half and went on to defeat Jordan 85-63 in the fifth game of this year’s William Jones Cup play last night to improve to a 3-2 mark.
With another big crowd at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium in Tianmu to cheer on the home team, the visitors actually opened the game with a 6-2 lead in the first three minutes of the contest to take the crowd out of the game.
However, that did not rattle the Islanders, as they quickly answered with Chang Tsong-hsien taking the ball strong to the hoop to keep the deficit at two (15-13) after one quarter of play.
Photo courtesy of CTBA
Jordan would capitalize on several unforced turnovers by Taiwan in the second quarter behind the stellar play of Ali Zaghab and Mohammad Hussein to build a 36-31 lead at the half.
The deficit would serve as a “wake-up call” for the home team, because whatever an upset skipper Hsu Jin-tseh said to his troops during the halftime would work wonders, as the Taiwanese came out of the break on fire with a couple of major runs. These were highlighted by a pair of threes from Lin “the Beast” Chih-jeh and Lu Cheng-rue to take a comfortable 59-47 lead at the end of the third quarter.
Lu would end with 20 points on the night, while Chang netted a game-high 22 from his shooting-guard position.
That was as close as the Jordanians got, as Taiwan opened the fourth quarter with a game-sealing 9-0 run en route to a blowout victory.
Taiwan will take a well deserved day off today, before tomorrow’s contest against a young Guan-hua squad in preparation for the weekend’s showdown against the Philippines and South Korea.
Other scores:
‧ Iran 97, US 89
‧ Lebanon 88, Taiwan Guan-hua 67
‧ The Philippines 88, Japan 84
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