The Videoland Hunters scored 30 third-quarter points and turned what had been a close contest against the Azio Eagles into an eventual 95-71 blowout win for the Hunters on Sunday night at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium.
The Hunters coasted through a tough three-game weekend with a perfect mark to remain the only undefeated club in the Super Basketball League.
The heavily favored Hunters appeared to be a bit flat-footed in the early going and were held scoreless for nearly the first three minutes before regaining their shooting touch to finish out the first quarter leading 21-16.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUN, TAIPEI TIMES
Power forward Mao Jia-en of the Eagles made sure his team did not trail the league leaders by too much with eight second-quarter points to keep it a 43-41 game in favor of the Hunters at the half.
That was as close as the young Eagles would get as the Hunters played at a higher level in the second half to pull away for the victory.
Jonathan Sanders continued his dominance on the glass with 20 rebounds to go along with his game-high 22 points on the night in a rare double-20 effort.
He was joined by fellow front-court mate Lee Chi-yi, who poured in 20 points in the game to nearly match Lee's effort.
Dinos 93, Bank of Taiwan 76
Scoring early and often, the Yulon Dinos let off a giant load of steam and frustration with a near-flawless first half against Bank of Taiwan en route to a 93-76 final for their first victory of the season.
After dropping two in a row to start off the year with a 0-2 record, the defending champs were ready to show the bankers what they were made of in a must-win situation.
And that was exactly what took place on the court as the Dinos greeted their banking counterparts with a 15-0 welcome behind strong starts by forward Chen "Airman" Hsin-an and sharp-shooting guard Chou Shih-yuan.
Though the bankers would flash some signs of brilliance in an evenly played second quarter, there was little doubt about which team was going to win.
The Dinos' 48-35 cushion at the half quickly became a 28-point advantage midway through the third quarter as Chen and company picked apart the bankers' defense, prompting both coaches to send in their reserve players for the biggest part of the second half.
The Dinos were led by Chou's team-high 17 points in just 20 minutes of play and all but one of the Dinos players scored at least two points in the game.
As for the bankers, emerging forward Yueh Yin-li provided the lone highlight for the bankers with a game-high 19 points.
Taiwan Beer 77, Antelopes 70
Taiwan Beer bounced back from a disappointing loss to the Hunters on Saturday night with a solid 77-70 win over the ETTV Antelopes on Sunday to settle for a 1-1 weekend record.
Both offenses had trouble finding the net in a low-scoring first quarter.
The beer crew hung onto a slim 14-10 lead in the first quarter before they erupted for 29 second-quarter points to lead the Antelopes by a comfortable 43-33 margin at the end the first half.
ETTV finally got back on track in the third quarter with a pressure defense that held Taiwan Beer to only 10 points to pull within one point of the beer men.
But that was as close as they got as Taiwan Beer scored several timely baskets to prevent the Antelopes from gaining any kind of momentum offensively.
Ho Sho-cheng quietly took over the top scorer's role from Lin "the Beast" Chih-jeh for Taiwan Beer in the game with a team-high 21 points.
Accounting for more than 35 percent of the Antelopes' total point production was shooting guard Yang Yu-ming, who scored 25 points.
However, Yang's inspired play in the absence of injured forward Delvin Thomas was not good enough to deliver the elusive first win of the season as his team dropped to an 0-3 mark.
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