Forward Lo Pei-yi’s 37 points yesterday led the defending champions Pu-Men High School from Kaohsiung to the women’s basketball title for the second year in a row.
Pu-Men took a decisive 79-58 victory over Nanshan High School from New Taipei City in the High School Basketball League (HBL) final played at the Taipei Arena.
Nanshan mounted a rally after returning from the half in a bid to close the 38-21 gap, but Lo sent the game out of reach by nailing four from the three-point range in the pivotal third quarter.
BRECORD-SETTERS
Lo said she was overjoyed to help her school to retain the title, and in the process break her elder sister Lo Pei-chen’s 30-point record set during last year’s HBL final
Team captain Chen Meng-hsin contributed 15 points to Pu-Men’s win, which made it only the fifth women’s team to win twice in a row.
Taipei’s Hujiang High School took third earlier yesterday afternoon, coming from behind to defeat Tainan’s Yung-Ren High School 71-66.
MEN’S FINAL
In the men’s final, Taipei’s Songshan Senior High School also took a second consecutive title with a 70-60 win over Neng Ren Home Economic and Commercial Vocational High School from New Taipei City.
Head coach Huang Wan-jung has built a hoops dynasty at Songshan, capturing the HBL men’s title for the third time in four years and the sixth time since 2009.
TEAM EFFORT
“It had been a very tough tournament. We expected a difficult road, and many people did not want us to win again, but we had a good team effort throughout, and I am proud of these guys,” Huang said.
Due to the intense rivalries and high level of competition between all of the nation’s major schools, the HBL is the most popular basketball tournament in Taiwan, with most playoff games drawing sell-out crowds.
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