The Taiwan Mobile Cloud Leopards needed overtime to top Kinmen Kaoliang 120-105 in the final game at the Taipei Municipal Gymnasium last night as both teams closed out the regular season on a positive note.
Having lost two of their previous three meetings to the Distillers, the Leopards were looking for a big win in their regular season finale to gain much-needed momentum for the upcoming postseason.
That was exactly what they got as they rode the red-hot shooting of Noel Felix, who converted six of seven from the field for 13 points to help his team to a 30-26 lead after one quarter of play.
Taiwan Mobile added to their lead by five with a solid second quarter, in which Chang Yu-lin drained a pair of threes to pick up the scoring slack left vacant by Felix, who sat out half of the quarter to give the Leopards bench some time on the floor.
The Leopards maintained their nine-point lead early in the third.
However, Kinmen Kaoliang rolled off an 11-0 run to take their first lead of the game at 73-71, before holding onto to the end of the quarter.
The two teams traded leads smaller than five points, before a three-point play by Felix with less than 30 seconds remaining in regulation time forced a 101-all tie that sent the game into overtime.
The Leopards then cranked their game up a notch, scoring the first 13 points in overtime to turn back the Distillers for good.
Tigers 74, Bank of Taiwan 68
The playoff-bound Dacin Tigers also came up big in their final regular season match against Bank of Taiwan by topping the Bankers 74-68 in Sinjhuang last night.
The Tigers showed tremendous patience and teamwork, racking up 15 assists on a night they needed to play together as a unit to prepare for the postseason that is set to begin on Saturday.
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