The Videoland Hunters tied a club record for the longest winning streak by topping the Dacin Tigers in an 87-72 decision at the Taipei Physical Education College Gym-nasium on Saturday afternoon for their fifth straight victory.
In a game in which they never trailed, the Hunters, the lone unbeaten squad in the league, opened fire on the stunned Tigers with a 14-4 run in the first quarter on the strength of two fast-break buckets and an inside attack that featured premier scorer Jonathan Sanders at the low post to build a comfortable 23-16 lead through the first quarter.
Another fine all-around effort by the Hunters during the second quarter would help them claim a sizable 44-31 cushion at the half, despite the fact that the Tigers shot better than 50 percent from the field during the first half.
The Hunters' dominance continued in the third quarter where they upped the lead by as many as 21 points, thanks to shooting guard Yang Tseh-yi's 10 big points from the floor in the quarter, making the final quarter a mere formality in the convincing win.
Four different players scored in double digits for the Hunters. Sanders led the pack once again with 21 points, 12 rebounds and three assists.
Yang also chipped in 18 points on the night with fellow center Lai Guo-hong netting a dozen.
As for the Tigers, Tien Lei had his usual double-double night with 24 points and 15 boards, both game-highs for skipper Liu Jia-fa. Tien was followed by Wang, who poured in 23 for his team, with five three-pointers, in a losing effort.
Bank of Taiwan 96 Antelopes 83
Bank of Taiwan had little trouble against the ETTV Antelopes in the second game on Saturday, with five players scoring in double figures in a balanced attack en route to a 96-83 win.
The bankers snapped a two-game losing skid by beating the Antelopes with superior shooting from the floor, hitting 35 of 73 total shots (48 percent) to overcome their 21 turnovers in the game.
The Antelopes played evenly with the bankers for the first quarter and slowly let their opponents have their way in a sloppy second quarter, which saw the bankers leading by eight (46-38) heading into the intermission.
A forgettable third quarter for the Antelopes in which they were held to 13 points by the bankers' defense spotted Bank of Taiwan a 20-plus point advantage, a lead they would not surrender the rest of the way.
Even though the Antelopes finally erupted for 32 fourth quarter points, it was too little too late as they experienced their fourth loss in five games.
Yang Jing-min led the bankers with 17 points on the night in his best performance of the season.
With US forward Delvin Thomas sitting out with an injury, Ou-Yang Jin-hehn's 19 points provided the Antelopes with their lone highlight.
Eagles 75, Dinos 95
Behind Chou Shih-yuan's season-high 31 points, the Yulon Dinos crushed the Azio Eagles by a whopping 95-75 margin for their second win in a row.
The Eagles showed no signs of intimidation early against the defending champs by dictating the tempo of the game in a well-played first quarter and actually led the Dinos 24-20 at one point.
But that was as close as the Dinos would allow the Eagles to get as they outscored a young Azio squad 24-15 during the second quarter to jump back on top 44-39 at the half.
A hard-fought third quarter saw the Dinos increase their lead to double digits with Chou scoring at will and the Eagles responding with a 7-2 run of their own late in the quarter to keep deficit within 10.
In the fourth quarter, the Dinos offense finally awoke with 31 points to put the game away.
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