Quincy Davis bounced back from a foul-troubled effort in Game 4 with a 30-point outburst in Game 5 of the semi-finals last night to lift the top-seeded Pure Youth Construction past the Yulon Luxgens in a 77-75 win at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium in Tianmu.
The cool-headed big man out of Tulane University, who is on a very short list of contenders for this year’s Most Valuable Player honor, showed what he is really made of after a disappointing Game 4 by dominating the inside of the paint with nine points in the fourth quarter to give the Builders a 3-2 advantage in the best-of-seven series, one win shy of a ticket into the finals for the second straight year.
“We knew we had to keep our cool against an experienced team like the Luxgens, especially not getting into foul trouble again because I can’t help the team if I am on the bench,” Davis said after the game.
While he managed to play out the game, despite having three fouls prior to the end of the first half, his counterpart Herve Lamizana was not so fortunate, as the Yulon big man fouled out just a minute into the fourth quarter to eliminate the single force that could contain Davis inside the paint.
“[Having Lamizana fouled out] really hurt us because it took away our ability to guard against Davis inside the paint,” Yulon skipper Lin Cheng-ming said after the game.
His troops must regroup in a hurry in tonight’s Game 6 if they wish to hang around and stretch the series into the decisive seventh.
The Builders came out firing with a 23-point first quarter to lead the car-makers by six after the opening frame with Davis and Lin Jin-bang accounting for 13 of their 23 points.
They added to their lead by one in the second quarter against a tougher Luxgen defense, before opening leads as large as 11 points in the third to seemingly pull away early.
That proved not to be the case as Yulon rallied back with a 10-0 late in the third to nearly erase the deficit and hung tough throughout the fourth in the absence of Lamizana, before falling short by two in the end.
TIGERS 71, LEOPARDS 69
The Dacin Tigers held off a late-game rally by the Taiwan Mobile Cloud Leopards to prevail in a 71-69 final in Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead in their semi-final series.
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