Pure Youth Construction took a commanding 3-1 lead over the Dacin Tigers in the best-of-seven semi-final series in the Super Basketball League last night with an 89-77 win in Game 4 at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City.
With the win, the two-time defending champs are one victory away from advancing into the Championship Finals for the third straight year, putting them on the cusp of another postseason run that would set them apart from the rest of the league.
Leading the way for the Builders with another fine performance were Tsai Wen-cheng and Quincy Davis, whose 41 combined points accounted for nearly half of their team’s total offense.
The scoring tandem took turns in keeping the Tigers at bay, with the former championing a solid quarter to keep the Builders in the first quarter against an outstanding outing by Tigers big man Reggie Okosa, and the latter pouring in 10 in the third to fend off a 14-2 Tiger run that brought them from as many as 16 down to within four of the Builders.
Also starring for Pure Youth was Chien Chia-hung, who came off the bench and chipped in nine in the fourth, including a rally-killing three-pointer with the Tigers lurking behind to deny the Cats any chances of a comeback.
After the two squads played to an even first that saw the Builders leading 19-16, the second quarter was all Builders as they led by as many as 17 before closing out the first half with a 43-27 advantage.
The seemingly safe lead at half was anything but that for the Builders, as the Tigers opened the third quarter with a 14-2 run in the first four minutes to make it a four-point game midway through the quarter.
That was as close as they got, as Davis single-handedly took over the game in the remaining five minutes of the third with 10 points in the quarter to push up the Builders’ lead back to 15 to put the game away.
In other play, it was:
‧ Leopards 65, Taiwan Beer 58
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