Riding Luo "the Natural" Hsin-liang's red-hot three-point shooting on a five-for-eight night, Taiwan Beer overcame a 12 point, fourth-quarter deficit to edge past the Dacin Tigers in a 92-89 triumph at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium on Sunday.
The 35-year-old veteran guard rose to the occasion with two clutch three's and a pair of long inbound passes to teammate Ho Sho-cheng for two easy scores in the final quarter to help the beer crew win its third straight in front of a sellout crowd.
"Someone had to pick up the slack with the game on the line," head coach Yen Jia-hua said after the game, referring to his prized off-season acquisition from the Azio Eagles (formerly YMY).
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Yen could not have been more correct because Luo's experience and ability to lead the previously-inconsistent beermen was the missing piece of the puzzle that finally arrived this year.
The game began with the Tigers netting four three-pointers against a soft Taiwan Beer defense before the beer crew picked its game up a notch to finish out the opening quarter with a 28-21 lead.
Taiwan Beer would continue its dominance in the second quarter with top scorer Lin "the Beast" Chih-jeh and Luo firing four combined three's to take a 49-35 lead before the Tigers roared back on the power forward Yao Jung-jeh's low-post moves and point guard Su Yi-jeh buzzer-beating three-pointer to fall within eight of Taiwan Beer (49-41) at the half.
Yao's dozen points in the third quarter alone would spark a Tigers rally that actually put them ahead 73-69 by the end of the quarter before they increased the cushion to as many as 12 points early in the fourth.
But Taiwan Beer had the last laugh, with Luo leading the way by scoring the game's final 10 points to clinch the comeback victory.
Hunters 114, Bank of Taiwan 97
The Videoland Hunters set a club record winning streak by topping Bank of Taiwan in a 114-97 shootout on Sunday night for their sixth win in a row.
Clearly playing head-and-shoulder above the rest of the pack, the league leaders remained unbeaten in all six contests of the season thus far, thanks to another outstanding performance from American forward Jonathan Sanders who racked up a season-high of 37 points and 20 rebounds for his second double-20 outburst of the year.
Also starring for the Hunters were fastbreak finisher Yang Tseh-yi, who shot an impressive seven-for-10 from the floor, and power forward Lee Chi-yi, with 18 and 16 points respectively to make this one a foregone conclusion with the Hunters enjoying a 60-37 lead by the end of the first half.
As for the Bankers, who closed out the three-game week with a dismal 1-2 record, the lack of muscle and depth in their frontcourt was fully exploited by Sanders whose ten offensive rebounds hurt the Bankers.
Dinos 80, Antelopes 78
The ETTV Antelopes' attempt to make it a 2-win weekend fell two points short as they dropped an 80-78 heartbreaker to the Yulon Dinos in Sunday's nightcap.
Tseng Wen-ding's dominance inside the paint proved too much for the Antelopes to handle in the final quarter as the Dinos all-star center collected eleven of his team-high 28 points (also a season-high for Tseng) in the last leg to fend off a fierce Antelopes comeback.
Inability to punch the ball inside by the Antelopes in the absence of hired gun Delvin Thomas (still nursing a knee injury he suffered in the season-opening game on Jan, 7) made the job for the Dinos defense much easier as it ganged up on Antelopes shooting guard Yang Yu-ming, whose game-high 30 points nearly pulled off the upset win.
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