Chen Ching-huan’s clutch three-pointer with 21.2 seconds remaining rallied turned a two-point deficit into a one-point lead as Kinmen Kaoliang held on to edge Bank of Taiwan 73-72 at the Changhua County Gymnasium yesterday afternoon.
The clincher not only gave the Distillers their second win of the season, good enough to bring them out of the cellar in the standings briefly (until the Tigers upset top-ranked Pure Youth Construction late last night), but also helped them avoid what would have been an embarrassing loss that saw them waste second-half leads as large as 20 points and actually trailed the Bankers before prevailing in the end.
“It was either Wei-rue [Chien] or me to take the last shot, and since I was open first, so I took it,” Chen said after the game.
His shot really bailed out what turned out to be a fourth-quarter breakdown by the Distillers that nearly cost them the game.
Kinmen Liquor came out firing with newcomer Bryan Davis leading the charge with six points in the first quarter to give his team an 18-11 lead.
The advantage would grow by four at the end of the first half with Chien’s pair of three’s spearheading a Distiller offense that took it strong to the Bankers.
After another solid effort in the third by Kinmen Liquor to widen their lead to 20 in the quarter, the Bankers finally awoke in the fourth by outscoring their opponents 27-8 to lead it by two with under a minute to play before falling short by one in the end in disheartening fashion.
BRAVES 91 TAIWAN BEER 78
The Fubon Braves picked up where their left off on Saturday night with a 91-78 win over Taiwan Beer in Changhua last night to close out the three-game weekend with a perfect 3-0 record.
Liu Chan and Patrick O’Bryant combined for 15 points in an offensive clinic to put the Brew Crew ahead 25-23 after one quarter of play.
However, the Braves would answer with a strong second quarter, thanks to eight points from Chang Rong-hsuan that saw them enjoy a 46-39 lead at the half.
A pair of three’s by Tso Tsung-kai helped even things up at 62-all late in the third, and that was as close as Taiwan Beer got as Fubon countered with a 14-2 run over the next four minutes of play to skid ahead for good.
Four players scored in double-figures for the Braves, led by Darian Townes’ 23.
As for Taiwan Beer, O’Bryant led all scorers with a season-high 30 points on the night, but it was not enough to carry his team over the hump against the red-hot Braves.
PURE YOUTH 72 TIGERS 83
The last-place Dacin Tigers pulled off the biggest upset of the season so far by topping league-leading Pure Youth Construction in an 83-72 final in last night’s weekend finale.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
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