An ill-advised swing at a Dacin player by Azio Eagles center Jien Jia-hong led to a full-scale brawl in the closing minutes of their game at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium on Friday evening, tarnishing what had been an excellent start to the Super Basketball League season.
The "hard-fought" match netted the Dacin Tigers a 90-79 win, but none of the 1,000-plus fans on hand really cared because the damage to the sport had already been done.
The league's technical committee held an emergency meeting following the game and issued an official statement late on Friday night, which announced that a four-game suspension and NT$50,000 (US$1,500) fine had been given to Jien for his misconduct.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Two-game suspensions and NT$20,000 fines were issued to the Eagles' Liu Yi-shiang and to the Tigers' Chen Tsu-wei, Yao Jung-jeh and Fan Geng-shiang for their misbehavior in the incident.
All three members of the officiating crew were also tagged with a three-week suspension for their inability to control the players during the game.
"We are all sorry for what happened tonight; this is not what we want to show to the fans," Eagles rookie head coach Hsu Jin-tseh said after the game.
Inconsistent calls by the three referees in the game also drew criticism from top league officials, who plan to revaluate the existing certification program for all league referees to ensure the quality of officiating crew.
The game began with top Tigers scorer Tien Lei ringing up five quick points during the opening minute to help spot his team a 31-19 lead after one quarter of play.
But Jien and his fellow Eagles stopped the Tigers momentum in a hurry by outscoring the cats in the second quarter by a 27-16 margin to close out the first half trailing the Tigers just 47-46.
A well-rested Tien, who spent most of the second quarter on the Dacin bench with three early fouls, came in to score a dozen for the Tiger in an evenly played third quarter.
The Tigers offense proved too much for the Eagles to handle in the game-deciding fourth as Tien and company put together an impressive 14-5 run against a banged-up Eagles defense to pull away with the win at the end.
Jien, whose four-game suspension went into effect immediately, was enjoying his best game in two seasons with 26 points, eight rebounds and four assists to help his team keep pace with the Tigers before his ejection from the game, which came at the 1:14 mark in the final quarter.
Dinos 60, Hunters 80
Doing as they pleased against a shorthanded Yulon Dinos squad, the Videoland Hunters steamrolled over the defending champs in an 80-60 blowout for their second straight win in as many games.
US forward Jonathan Sanders' game-high 19 points and 17 rebounds powered a potent attack by the Hunters, who jumped to a surprising 26-20 lead after the first quarter before tacking on eight more to claim a comfortable 44-30 cushion at the half.
Without the services of starting backcourt tandem Chen Chih-chung and Lee Hsueh-lin, Yulon skipper Lee Yun-kuan saw his crew fall behind by as many as 24 points in a complete collapse during the third quarter, making the fourth a mere formality as the Dinos dropped a second straight game for only the second time in four seasons.
Three different Hunters players scored in double figures in the game compared to the Dinos' one, with guards Yang Tsen-yi and Chen Hui complementing Sanders nicely with 15 and 14 points, respectively.
Still in search of that elusive first victory, the Dinos will look to get healthy as soon as possible to regain the winning form that have made them the team to beat over the past three seasons.
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