Preseason action continued in the Super Basketball League (SBL) on Saturday with the Yulon Dinos skidding past the Taiwan Mobile Leopards in an 84-74 win at the Hsinchu County Sports Complex.
The Leopards (formerly the Videoland Hunters) played the Dinos tough through the third quarter in a 54-54 tie despite losing three of their top starters from last year during the offseason, but finally ran out of gas in the end to lose by 10.
Three-pointers by Chen "Airman" Hsin-an and newly acquired Yang Tseh-yi (from the Leopards) led to an early lead for the Dinos in the opening quarter before Taiwan Mobile answered with a mini run of their own to close out the quarter leading 21-20.
Then came a sloppy second quarter for both squads that saw the Leopards commit a dozen turnovers and the Dinos missing several wide-open jumpers in a low-scoring affair. The Dinos reclaimed a 36-33 lead at halftime.
Good penetration by the Leopards' Wu Yong-ren and Hong Chi-chao led to some easy baskets against the Dinos bench in the third quarter before skipper Lin Yun-kuan sent on his first team in the fourth to show the Leopards what the Dinos were really made of.
Four different players ended up with double-digit scores for the Dinos, led by the Airman's game-high 19 while guards Lee Hsueh-lin and Yang netted 18 and 17 points respectively.
Offensively for the Leopards, Wu's team-high 18 points over 37 valiant minutes of play, with fellow teammates Hsu Tseh-hsin and Liu Sheng-yao combining for 25 points, showed they are not to be taken lightly even though they have a different starting five this season.
Tigers 71, Pure Youth 67
The Dacin Tigers avoided what would have been an embarrassing loss to a young Pure Youth side on Saturday by holding off a fierce rally to win the contest 71-67.
Following the Tigers' ugly defeat in the exhibition opener against Taiwan Beer on Friday, another loss to Pure Youth would have set last season's runners-up back even further.
And fortunately for the Tigers, backcourt tandem Wang Chih-chuin and Chang Chih-fong rose to the occasion by scoring the game's final four points to take a thrilling victory.
Trailing by ten in the early part of the fourth quarter, Pure Youth demonstrated unusual poise and maturity by chipping away at the deficit to pull within one of the Tigers with under two minutes remaining in the game. But that was as close as they got.
Numen 80, Bank of Taiwan 58
Outplaying their counterparts in every facet of the game, the dmedia Numen (formerly the ETTV Antelopes) kicked off their preseason opener with a monstrous 80-58 triumph over the winless Bank of Taiwan on Saturday.
Ou-Yang Jing-hen led the scorers with 22 points in the game for dmedia while former Hunters forward Jonathan Sanders scored 11 for his new team in a solid showing.
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