Foreign players excelled in Saturday's SBL clash between the dmedia Numen and Pure Youth.
The sellout crowd in Taichung experienced more than three hours of pure hoop excitement, featuring an unprecedented near-halfcourt ally-oop by the Numen and several monstrous dunks, before dmedia claimed a 105-102 win.
Leading the way for dmedia was American Jonathan Sanders with a brilliant showing on a 34-point, 21-rebound night to top fellow-countryman Doug Creighton's Taiwan debut of 20 points and seven boards for his ninth double-20 effort in just 31 regular-season games. Even though his role on the new team has yet to be fully determined, the all-purpose power forward from the US will certainly be the center of attention for dmedia's opponents.
The contest began with the Numen leading 25-16 at the end of the first quarter and they led throughout the game until the closing seconds of regulation time when Creighton scored a three-pointer to force the game into overtime.
Dmedia scored five straight to open the first extra session but then submitted to the perimeter game of Creighton to leave Pure Youth with a 94-92 lead late in the session. Sanders managed to find Chen Jin-huan breaking for the basket with an easy deuce to force the game into the second overtime in which the Numen converted seven of eight free-throw attempts to earn the win.
Five different players scored in double-digits for the Numen compared to Pure Youth's four. Pure Youth also committed 39 fouls in the game that literally made it impossible for them to win as they found themselves short of ball-handlers at the end.
Tigers 90, Bank of Taiwan 85
Bank of Taiwan nearly pulled off an upset but fell short to the Dacin Tigers in a 90-85 decision to drop both games in the opening weekend.
The bankers held a 23 point lead midway through the third after surprising last season's runner-ups by leading 24-16 and 49-38 at the end of the first quarter and first half respectively.
But the tide turned in favor of Dacin during the latter half of the third as they held the bankers scoreless for nearly four minutes while chipping away at the lead to fall within ten with less than five minutes remaining.
They knotted things up at 71-all before sending it into overtime after Wang Chih-chuin only managed to hit one of two free-throws with eight seconds remaining that would have given the Tigers a win in regulation time.
Instead, the Tigers relied on Wang Tzu-wei's late-game heroics for the second straight game as the hero of Friday night's win over Taiwan Beer rose to the occasion and scored seven of his team's final 13 point to prevent the bankers from claiming victory.
Dinos 76, Leopards 61
The Yulon Dinos cruised past the Taiwan Mobile Leopard in a 76-61 win on Saturday behind an outstanding performance by Chen "Airman" Hsin-an.
The premier power forward in the league, who led all scorers with 22 points and seven rebounds in the game, helped the three-time champs open a 33-15 lead after the first quarter on their way to an easy win.
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