The Yulon Luxgens knocked off Taiwan Beer 82-58 at the Miaoli County Sports Complex yesterday afternoon to claim their 10th victory of the season.
Yulon needed little time to show the Brew Crew who was in charge, thanks to solid showings by newcomer Herve Lamizana and veteran point man Chen Chih-chung, whose 15 combined points in the quarter gave their team a 22-15 lead after the first 10 minutes of play.
Taiwan Beer regained their composure with a 7-0 run late in the second quarter to close out the first half with only a single-digit deficit. However, the outcome of the match seemed to have already been determined as Yulon continued their dominance over the Brew Crew — missing top scorers Tso Tsong-kai and Liu Chan through injury — by pounding the ball inside the paint, with Lamizana receiving great feeds from Chen and taking them strong to the hoop.
“We knew we would run into some problems this year with a much younger lineup, due to the departure of some key veterans, and we are doing what we can to keep the games competitive,” Taiwan Beer skipper Liu Jia-fa said after the game.
His team have lost five straight and 10 of their last 11 after starting off the season with a three-game win streak.
The three-time champs could drop to dead-last in the league as they only hold a narrow half-game advantage over Kinmen Liquor, with the Distillers showing signs of improvement over the past two weeks.
Taiwan Beer’s 58 points marked a season-low and Liu will be looking to stop the rot by going all out in their game against Kinmen Liquor this afternoon.
Pure Youth 87, Leopards 74
Top-ranked Pure Youth Construction had little trouble against the struggling Taiwan Mobile Cloud Leopards in the second game in Miaoli yesterday, running them off the court to improve to 15-3 for the season.
Quincy Davis converted five of his first six shot attempts as the Builders outscored the Leopards 30-14 to open the game. They led by more than 20 points for most of the contest before earning a 13-point winning margin.
Five different players scored in double-digits for the defending champs, headed by Davis’ team-high 19, while the game-high 25 points by the Leopards’ Noel Felix was the lone spotlight for his team.
In yesterday’s late game Kinmen Liquor beat the Dacin Tigers 86-76.
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