Erupting for 57 first-half points, Bank of Taiwan topped Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor 108-90 at the Taipei Municipal Gymnasium yesterday afternoon.
The win not only gave the Bankers a perfect weekend of play for just the third time this season, but also guaranteed them a fifth-place finish in the regular season standings, as they hold a two-game lead over sixth-place Kinmen with one game left to play.
Five threes in a wild first quarter set the tone early in the game for the Bankers as they bombarded the Kinmen basket with showers of long-range bombs that made their way through the net more often than not. The Bankers finished with an astonishing 16-for-37 shooting from behind the three-point arc to tally a season-high 108 points.
Leading the way for the awesome Bankers’ three-point attack were Wang Nan-kwei and Chuang Hsiao-wen, whose combined seven-for-12 shooting was virtually impossible for the Distillers to defend against.
With Wang and Chuang converting from long range, which drew the Kinmen defense farther out to clear up the inside of the paint, center Joseph Taylor got the necessary room to flex his muscles underneath. The American hit eight of nine field goals from close range on top of a pair of threes to rack up a team-high 24 points on the day.
Falling victims to a rare three-point attack from the Bankers, the Distillers put a dismal first half behind them in which they were outscored 57-32, and played a strong second half that saw guard Lin Guan-luen down 35 points to make the final score more respectable.
Lin finished with a season-high 45 points in the game to top the 41 points he managed in their game against Taiwan Beer last week.
Tigers 68, Taiwan Beer 61
The Dacin Tigers celebrated their upset win over top-ranked Pure Youth Construction the previous evening with victory over Taiwan Beer in the second game in Taipei yesterday, thanks to a double-double outing from center Rolando Howell.
Compared with the Tigers’ wild 101-99 overtime win over the Builders, the game against the Brew Crew was played at a much slower pace as the Tigers tried to conserve their strength for the upcoming post-season while Taiwan Beer looked to play out a tough three-game weekend.
Leopards 101, Luxgens 91
The Taiwan Mobile Cloud Leopards also pulled off a perfect two-win weekend with a victory over the Yulon Luxgens in yesterday’s final game.
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