Exhibition action continued in the Super Basketball League (SBL) yesterday afternoon with the Dacin Tigers holding off a late-game run by Pure Youth Construction to escape with an 84-82 win at the Changhua County Gymnasium.
Both squads showed some early-season rustiness in a low-scoring first quarter that ended at 12-all, before the Cats skidded ahead in a competitive second quarter to wrap up the first half with a slim 34-32 advantage.
Dacin kicked their offensive efforts up a notch with a 29-point third quarter to take a double-digit lead before holding off a 30-point fourth by the defending champs to garner a narrow victory.
Photo: Lin Tsung-wei, Taipei Times
Four different players scored in double figures for the Tigers, with Lin Guan-lun’s game-high 24 points leading the way.
For the Builders, Tsai Wen-cheng’s 18-point outing led a trio of double-digit scorers who nearly pulled off an all-out rally in the fourth to tie the game up before the Tigers rolled off an 11-1 run to deny them the opportunity.
Taiwan Beer 71, Kinmen Liquor 80
Kinmen Liquor opened their pre-season play on a high note with a win over Taiwan Beer, the Brew Crew’s second straight defeat in as many days.
The Distillers cashed in early on Taiwan Beer’s miscues, scoring 23 first-quarter points to lead 23-18, before holding the Brew Crew to just eight points in the second quarter to enjoy a comfortable 41-26 cushion at the half.
That was the difference in the game as the best of Kinmen weathered a physical second-half comeback attempt by Taiwan Beer and then put on a solid third before holding off a 25-point rally by the men in green and white to preserve the win.
Lin Wei-han and Kuo Shao-chieh came off the bench with 14 and 13 points respectively to lead the Distillers in a game where a couple of their regular starters did not play as well as they could have.
As for the Brew Crew, they will have the rest of the week to tweak the mistakes they made in the back-to-back losses before Saturday’s regular-season opener against the Dacin Tigers.
Luxgens 71, Braves 78
The Fubon Braves bounced back from Saturday night’s loss to Bank of Taiwan with a triumph over the Yulon Luxgens in the nightcap to even their pre-season mark at 1-1.
Four three’s by Liu Sheng-yao led the way for the former Taiwan Mobile Cloud Leopards, who finally shook off the Luxgens with a 25-16 run in fourth quarter to put the Automakers away.
Newcomer Darian Townes followed his 18-point effort from the night before with 17 points and 15 boards to lift the victors past the Luxgens.
The Luxgens face Bank of Taiwan in Taichung on Sunday.
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