The Dacin Tigers yesterday held off a late-game rally by Bank of Taiwan to escape with a 90-80 win at the Banciao Gymnasium in New Taipei City.
The victory not only extended the third-ranked Cats’ winning streak to three, but it also cut their deficit behind second-ranked Taiwan Beer to 1.5 games as they head down the final stretch of the regular season with four and three games remaining on their respective schedules.
Heading into the contest with a pair of solid wins under their belt, the Tigers came out firing in the opening quarter with Chou Yi-hsiang netting 11 and Lu Chi-er chipping in 10 to double up on the Bankers at 28-14.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The Tigers added another two to their lead in a more competitive second quarter that saw Chu Yi-tsung nailing a pair of three-pointers to close out the first half with a commanding 48-32 advantage.
Dacin increased their margin to 22 points with a 16-4 run early in the third, with Chou and Chang Chih-fong spearheading the offense, only to see the resilient Bankers answer with a sizable run of their own, with Luke Nevill and Chang Po-wei combining for 13 points to keep the deficit at an even dozen by the end of the quarter.
The two teams traded mini runs in the fourth quarter, where the Financial Wizards kept the deficit below 10 for the most part. That set up a 5-0 run in favor of the upset-minded Bankers, who cut the Dacin lead to five with two minutes remaining in the game.
That was as close as they got as the Tigers outscored them 7-2 the rest of the way to pull away in the end.
Failure to put the game away when they had a chance continued to trouble the Cats, who have blown double-digit leads more often than skipper Chiou Da-tsung would like.
“Letting the other team back in the game is an old problem for us; that is something we need to work on a lot more,” Dacin rookie Lu said after the game, pointing out an age-old problem that could hurt his team in the post-season.
Taiwan Beer 86, Kinmen 82, OT
Taiwan Beer yesterday rallied from a second-half deficit to edge past Kinmen Kaoliang in overtime in the second game in New Taipei City.
Chiang Yu-an’s tiebreaking three-pointer with 48 seconds remaining in overtime put Taiwan Beer ahead after they played the entire overtime without top scorer Patrick O’Bryant, who fouled out late in regulation time, to skid past Kinmen Kaoliang.
What should have been an easy victory for the second-ranked Brew Crew against the last-placed Distillers turned into a dogfight, as Kinmen’s best refused to give up in the second half, despite racking up a double-digit first-half lead.
The Distillers trailed by as many as six points with less than two minutes of play remaining in regulation time before forcing the match into an extra session.
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