Undefeated Pure Youth Constructions made it three wins in a row in the early going of the new season by outmaneuvering the Dacin Tigers 84-73 at the New Taipei City Sports Complex in Sinjhuang last night.
Chien Jia-hong and Chang Yu-lin came off the Builders’ bench, and scored 41 combined points for skipper Hsu Jing-tseh, 26 of which came during the decisive second half.
Chien’s game-high 26 points and seven rebounds were the most important factor why Pure Youth remain unbeaten at 3-0.
Rashad Jones-Jennings also had a big day, as the American power forward showed off his leaping ability with a game-high 15 boards to complement his 16 points on the night.
After a hard-fought first quarter that ended in a 19-19 draw, the Builders would skid ahead by five with a 21-point second quarter to end the first half with a slight 40-35 advantage.
However, the Cats answered in the third to take a one-point lead into the fourth.
A power outage with less than five minutes to play led to a four-minute delay that allowed the Builders to recharge their batteries more quickly than the Cats as Pure Youth managed to pull off a 13-2 run following the delay en route to a convincing double-digit win.
Four different players scored in double-digits for the Tigers compared with Pure Youth’s three, led by Keith Gayden’s team-best 22.
Taiwan Beer 93, Kinmen 72
Taiwan Beer exploited a short-handed Kinmen Kaoliang interior defense by downing nearly 50 points from inside the paint to cruise past the Distillers 93-72 in the second game of the day.
The win not only gave the Brew Crew their third straight win to keep pace with the undefeated Builders, but also gave the starting five plenty of rest in preparation for today’s showdown with the Taiwan Mobile Leopards, as head coach Yen Jia-hua played 11 of his dozen for at least 10 minutes against a worn-out Kinmen Kaoliang team that was only eight men deep at best, not to mention the departure of imported player Sheldon Bailey (for unspecified reasons).
Doug Creighton demonstrated scoring efficiency by netting a team-high 23 in little more than 20 minutes of play, converting nine of 14 shots from the field.
For the Distillers, Chang Rong-hsuen had another 20-plus point night with a game-high 28.
Leopards 78, Bank of Taiwan 72
Nearly blowing a once--comfortable double-digit lead in the fourth, Taiwan Mobile Leopards held off a late-game rally by Bank of Taiwan to escape with a 78-72 win late last night.
The Bankers got within two of the Leopards with less than four minutes remaining in the game in what seemed to be a game--turning run, but fell short by committing three costly turnovers on their final five possessions to settle with a tough loss.