Avenging a one-point loss to the ETTV Antelopes earlier this month with a strong fourth-quarter surge, Taiwan Beer ran away with an 89-78 victory at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium on Sunday afternoon to close out the first half of the season with a bang before the Lunar New Year break.
It was the 88-87 win by the Antelopes over the Beer crew on Feb. 4 that kept intact a five-game winning streak for the Antelopes, thanks to a free throw by forward Wu Jia-long in the game's closing seconds.
On Sunday, there would be no last-second hero because Taiwan Beer made sure the game did not go down to the wire.
After a fast start by the Antelopes that gave them an early 18-16 lead by the end of the first quarter, Taiwan Beer answered with a 26-20 second-quarter to lead by four at the half (42-38).
Taiwan Beer top scorer Lin "the Beast" Chih-jeh shook off a sub-par first half in which he managed only two points with seven in the third against a tough Antelopes counter-attack to keep his team's lead at one point (63-62) heading into the final quarter, setting the stage for their offensive surge to secure the victory.
"We weren't about to make the same mistake twice," Taiwan Beer skipper Yen Jia-hua said after the game, referring to his team's late-game collapse that allowed the Antelopes to beat his club by a point on Feb 4.
Four different players managed double-digit scores for Taiwan Beer with Luo Hsin-liang leading the way with 18 points to offset the Beast's rare off night (12 points in the game compared to his season average of 20.9 prior to Sunday's game).
Fellow forward Ho Sho-cheng also chipped in 16 to help his team win its ninth game for the sole possession of the second-place spot in the latest standings.
As for the Antelopes, forward Delvin Thomas' season-high, 22-point night proved a tad short as they dropped two of the last three after winning five in a row over a two-week span to climb away from the bottom of the standings.
Bank of Taiwan 83, Eagles 61
Bank of Taiwan put struggling Azio Eagles in their place with an 83-61 rout on Sunday, grounding the young squad that had pulled off the upset of the season by beating the previously second-ranked Videoland Hunters in a 66-60 shocker on Saturday evening for their first win of the year.
Diminutive forward Chen Hsuen-shiang turned in his best game of the year by far with a game-high, 25-point effort to lead a Bankers' attack that had lost six in a row.
The Bankers took a 24-15 lead after the first quarter on the strength of 15 combined points by Chen and fellow forward Yang Jing-min and never looked back.
By half-time they lead by a comfortable 15 points that allowed head coach Wei Chen-ming to put on his reserve players.
Chang Yu-lin was nowhere near as effective as he had been on Saturday, scoring only four points, compared to the 22 that corralled his team to prevail against the Hunters.
"We needed this one like you wouldn't believe," Wei said after the game. "This win puts us all in a better mood for the New Year," Wei said.
Dinos 84, Tigers 72
Like Taiwan Beer, the Yulon Dinos also avenged an earlier loss on Sunday with an 84-72 win over the Dacin Tigers to claim the best record in the league (10-3).
The Tigers grabbed the Dinos by the tail in an overwhelming 83-70 win on Feb. 4 that halted the Dinos' impressive eight-game winning streak at the time. And that was more than adequate to trigger an all-out attack by the defending champs as they poured in 25 first-quarter points to lead by ten before really piling it on for a commanding 18-point lead by the fourth quarter.
The final score of 84-72 was no indication of the Dinos' complete dominance in the game as the Tigers went on an 11-0 run in the game's final minutes to spare their blushes.
SEESAW CONTEST: The Pistons remain top of the Eastern Conference after battling to a win over the Hawks in a game that saw the lead change 27 times The Phoenix Suns on Monday shrugged off an injury to Devin Booker to end the Los Angeles Lakers’ seven-game winning streak with an emphatic 125-108 victory on the road. Booker exited in the first quarter, but the loss of the star point guard did little to halt the flow of Phoenix points over the remainder of the game. Dillon Brooks led the Phoenix scoring with 33 points, while Collin Gillespie added 28 — including eight three-pointers — as the Suns romped to victory. The Lakers were left ruing a colossal 22 turnovers — at a cost of 32 Suns points — on a
New Zealand yesterday reached 231-9 at stumps on a first day of the first Test against the West Indies shortened by rain after Justin Greaves triggered a middle-order collapse with the wicket of Kane Williamson. New Zealand tumbled from 94-1 to 148-6 on a bowler-friendly wicket after Williamson was dismissed for 52, his 38th Test half-century. Michael Bracewell and Nathan Smith arrested the slide with a 52-run stand for the seventh wicket. Smith eventually fell for 23 and Bracewell for 47. After Matt Henry went for 8, Zak Foulkes and Jacob Duffy were both on 4 when bad light stopped play after 70
Robin Smith, the batter who shone for England in a period when it was beaten regularly in Test cricket, has died. He was 62. Smith’s family said in a statement from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) that he died unexpectedly at his home in Perth, Australia, on Monday. No cause was given. He played 62 Tests for England from 1988 to 1996, scoring 4,236 runs at an average of 43.67 with nine centuries. His signature shot was the square cut. Smith also played in 71 one-day internationals and was part of England’s squad who reached the 1992 ICC World Cup final. His unbeaten
SSC Napoli on Sunday joined AC Milan at the top of Serie A after winning 1-0 at title rivals AS Roma, as Inter kept pace with the leading pair by beating Pisa SC 2-0. David Neres stroked home the only goal of a feisty game in the 36th minute at the Stadio Olimpico, ending a blistering counterattack with a calm finish which put Napoli on 28 points. Napoli are behind Milan on goal-difference, and just one point ahead of both Roma and Inter in a tight scudetto battle in which Antonio Conte’s team are to host Juventus at the weekend. “To come to
RSS