The underdogs won two of three games on Saturday, starting with the Videoland Hunters' buzzer-beating 77-75 win over the favored Taiwan Beer during Super Basketball League action at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium.
Forward Yang Tseh-yi's two free throws with 35 seconds remaining brought the Hunters back from being down as many as 14 points to tie the game at 75-all. And his one-handed floater with time expiring found the center of the hoop for the win.
"To tell you the truth, I don't know how it [final shot] got in, with me being off-balanced and everything," Yang said. "But it did, so that's all that matters."
PHOTO COURTESY OF SBL
The game began with Taiwan Beer scoring at will behind a stellar effort by forwards Lin "The Beast" Chih-jeh and Wu Chih-yuan to open a 28-16 first quarter lead. But the beer crew went cold during the second quarter, reducing the gap to five (38-33) by the half.
Each team put up 23 points during the third quarter, and the veterans for both clubs took control of the game in a close fourth quarter, led by Hunters forwards Yang and Lee Chi-yi, and Taiwan Beers' Lin and point guard Chen Shih-nian.
Bank of Taiwan 79, Dinos 76
Bank of Taiwan accomplished mission impossible by beating the Yulon Dinos 79-76 for the first time in team history, ending a three-year, 10-game losing streak against the Dinos.
Power forward Chuang Hsiao-wen's monstrous game, which included an 8-for-11 shooting from behind the three-point arc for a career-high 24 points, paved the way for the previously flat bankers (losers in six of their last seven games).
Bankers point guard Wu Yong-ren had 21 points, eight rebounds and a game-high 10 assists, also playing a crucial role in the victory.
Bank of Taiwan took advantage of four early fouls by Yulon's All-Star center Tseng Wen-ding by pounding the ball inside.
With the Dinos defense sagging in to help Tseng defend against the bankers' inside attack, Bank of Taiwan then switched to its perimeter game, which hit nearly half of its three-point shots (17-for-36).
The Dinos quickly regrouped and if it were not for two costly misfires forward Lu Cheng-rue in the final minute, the defending champs could have won.
"We gave up way too many easy buckets with our defense tonight, so it's back to basketball fundamentals again," Dinos coach Lee Yun-kuan said.
Tigers 87, YMY 62
There were no surprises in the night cap on Saturday, as the Dacin Tigers cruised to an easy 87-62 victory over YMY to keep pace with Taiwan Beer for second place in the SBL standings.
The first half was a four-man battle featuring the scoring duo of Tien Lei and Wang Chih-chuin of the Tigers, who combined for 29 points, and YMY's top offensive guns in Luo "The Natural" Hsin-liang and Wang Chuan-jien, who combined for 26 points).
Then the big cats tightened up their defense to allow only eight points for YMY in the third quarter.
YMY never recovered, losing by a 25 points, while Wang's 28-point night marked a season high for the Tigers' floor leader.
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