Yang Yu-ming's team-high 26 points, including nine straight in the game-deciding fourth quarter, gave the ETTV Antelopes a sorely needed win over Taiwan Beer at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium on Friday.
The 79-70 victory pushed the Antelopes past the beermen to the fourth spot in Taiwan's Super Basketball League standings and delivered the first three-game winning streak in their team history.
Having lost in their previous two meetings by a combined margin of only three points, the Antelopes were more than ready push this one into the win column by taking a 43-38 lead at halftime.
PHOTO: SBL
After a low-scoring third quarter that allowed the beermen to pull within one, the Antelopes turned their game up a notch to out score the brew masters 25-17 in the fourth quarter to secure the victory.
"Yang's contribution was definitely the difference in the game for us," Antelopes coach Lee Yun-hsiang said. "He seems to have finally broken out of a slump."
From the field, Yang was 4-for-8 from three-point range and 10-for-18 overall.
As for Taiwan Beer, careless ball handling led to 17 turnovers and poor three-point shooting cost them the game.
"Everyone knows that we live and die by the threes, and tonight we simply couldn't convert from long range," Taiwan Beer coach Yen Jia-hua said.
The brew crew was 8-for-31 from beyond the three-point arc.
Hunters 73, Lions 66
Front court duo Lai Guo-hung and Lin Hsin-hua proved too much for the Sina Lions in Game 2 on Friday as the Videoland Hunters came out victorious in a 73-66 decision to sweep the Lions in their five-game regular season series.
Despite the win, the Hunters continued to show inconsistency on both ends of the floor, giving the coaching staff some headaches just two weeks before the postseason begins.
"An effort like tonight will definitely knock us out of the first round [of the playoffs]," Hunters assistant coach Chou Hai-rong said after the game.
"It was an ugly win for us. The Lions were more mentally in the game than we were. We surely didn't play like a title-contender out there tonight."
The Hunters had 19 turnovers in the game against the last-placed Lions, made up of mostly rookies.
A lack of spark on the court could spell trouble for the Hunters as they head into the final stretch of the regular season with tough upcoming games against top caliber clubs such as the Yulon Dinos and the Dacin Tigers.
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