The favorites had little trouble against the underdogs in the Super Basketball League on Friday night, with the Dacin Tigers topping Pure Youth Construction by a dozen in a 86-74 win and the Yulon Dinos clobbering Bank of Taiwan by a 82-69 margin at the National Taiwan College of Physical Education in Taichung.
The Tigers opened fire on their younger counterparts by starting off the game with a 15-2 run, doing as they pleased both inside the paint and from the perimeters. They would pad that lead by a couple by the end of the first quarter to lead 27-12, before playing a hard fought second quarter to close out the first half with a sound 47-35 advantage.
The Builders finally got on track early in the third period with a pair of long three's from Chen Jung-jeh and a low-post play by Jien Jia-hong in a 7-0 run to fall within five of the Cats. But that was the extent of their bid to match last season's losing finalists as Dacin answered with a 11-0 run to open a double-digit margin that they would hold all the way to the end.
PHOTO: LIAO YAO-TUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The victory for the Tigers came with a hefty price tag though as they lost starting point guard Wang Chih-chuin to an ankle injury during the fourth quarter that will sideline their court general and three-point threat for at least a week. That could spell trouble for head coach Chiou Da-tsong since the team will be taking on the top-ranked Yulon Dinos twice during the three-game span that Wang is likely to miss.
With Wang off the floor for a good part of the fourth quarter, the burden to direct the Tigers offense fell on Change Chih-fong, who was equal to the task, dishing out four assists on a 22-point night to lead all the scorers in the game.
As for Pure Youth, who showed signs of brilliance from time to time, the Tigers proved too much for them to handle. Their two top scorers, Doug Creighton and James Mao, were held to five combined points compared to their previous average of nearly 28 per game.
Bank of Taiwan 69, Dinos 82
The Yulon Dinos made it five in a row by crushing the Bank of Taiwan 82-69 to remain undefeated at 5-0 in the later game played in Taichung on Friday.
Even with top scorer and back-to-back Player of the Week winner Chen "Airman" Hsin-an out of the lineup in order to rest an injured knee, the Dinos did not miss a beat, connecting for 31 first-quarter points en route to another big win.
Other than a sloppy second quarter that kept the Dinos offense to a season-low of 10 points, which gave the Bankers some false hope as they managed to tie the game briefly at 43-43 early in the third, the outcome of the game was never in doubt. The Dinos quickly regrouped and regained a double-digit lead that they would maintain for the rest of the game.
Four different Dinos players scored 10 or more points on the night, led by Chen Chih-chung's game-high 23 and all-star center Tseng Wen-ding's 16.
Hsu Chih-chiang's 19 points and 13 boards were the lone highlight for the Bankers as they remain winless at 0-5 in what could be a long and hard season.
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