Chen "Airman" Hsin-an's 52-point performance at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium on Saturday paced the Yulon Dinos past the ETTV Antelopes in an impressive 113-95 victory that extended the defending champions' winning streak to nine games in Taiwan's Super Basketball League (SBL).
Since his return from a four-month stint with the Long Beach Jam of the American Basketball Association in late-March, Chen has worked to integrate himself back into the Dinos' offensive scheme.
Taiwan's premier all-around player sank 11 of 16 three-point attempts and was 17 for-27 from the floor.
Chen's scoring total and his 11 three-pointers were single-game records in the SBL.
The Dinos took a 35-22 first-quarter lead and never looked back.
Perimeter threats Chou Shih-yuan and Lee Hsueh-lin also chipped in 22 and 20 points, respectively, in an offensive explosion.
"Chen was just out of this world tonight -- everything he touched turned to gold," the Antelopes' Yang Yu-ming said.
"When someone is as hot as he was, all you can do is get out of his way."
Yang was the top scorer for the Antelopes with 25 points.
Though the Antelopes would win Sunday's contest against the Bank of Taiwan by an 83-67 final behind an outstanding 33-point night by Yang Yu-ming to even their record to 1-1 for the week, their fourth-place spot in the standings was in jeopardy because of Taiwan Beer's 87-75 win over the Videoland Hunters earlier on Sunday.
The Antelopes now trail the beermen by half a game in the standings with a pair of uphill battles against the league's top two squads -- the Dinos and the Hunters -- just ahead of the playoffs.
Not only do the Antelopes need to win both of these games, but they also need the beermen to lose at least two of their three remaining games, which are against the Dinos, the Bank of Taiwan and the Sina Lions, to qualify for the last postseason berth.
Assuming both clubs would lose their game versus the top-ranked Dinos, the Antelopes must beat the Hunters and pray for the beermen to lose against both the bankers and the Lions to make it into the postseason.
Much to the displeasure of Antelopes' coach Lee Yun-shiang, the Hunters sent a lineup consisting of mostly reserve players to take on Taiwan Beer in a 87-75 loss on Sunday, in an attempt to give the second stringers some much-needed game experience.
Having already locked in a second-place finish in the regular season, Hunters coach Chung Chih-mong was more concerned about sharpening his reserve players' skills than winning the game against the beermen, which was bad news for Lee, whose Antelopes needed the beermen to lose the game to remain in contention for the last playoff spot.
"It's not fair to us that the Hunters did not take the game against Taiwan Beer seriously, because we definitely saw the best effort that the Dinos could offer when we played them, even though the Dinos had already clinched the top seed for the postseason," Lee said.
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