Superior three-point shooting and a dominating double-20 effort by newcomer Jeff Jones lifted Bank of Taiwan past the Yulon Luxgens in a 93-82 triumph at the Hsinchu Municipal Gymnasium on Friday evening.
Chen Hsuen-shiang’s deadly six-for-eight shooting from behind the three-point arc led a Bankers’ three-point attack that converted 13 of 20 attempts to shock the Luxgens, while Jones muscled his way inside the paint for 20 points and as many rebounds in just the fourth-ever double-20 performance in league history.
“The shots just kept on dropping for me tonight, I really didn’t do anything differently,” Chen said after the game while he celebrated the Bankers’ first win of the season.
Despite missing top scorer Hsu Chih-chiang to a knee injury in what should have been a blowout loss to a superior Yulon team, Bank of Taiwan had a surprising 21-15 lead after the opening quarter on the strength of Chen’s eight points, before upping it to 50-37 at the half.
The Luxgens managed to cut the Bankers’ mostly double-digit lead to as few as five points early in the fourth behind several clutch threes by point guard Chen Chich-chung, but the Bankers answered with a 9-2 run with less than five minutes remaining in the contest to retake a double-digit lead they didn’t relinquish en route to the upset win.
Playing only eight men finally took its toll on the Luxgens, with it appearing as if they could have trouble compensating for the departure of former team icon Chen “Airman” Hsin-an to China and the lack of any foreign help to make up for his absence.
Tigers 88, Pure Youth 78
Erupting for 29 points in a game-turning third quarter, the Dacin Tigers broke a 39-39 tie at the half and went on to defeat Pure Youth Construction.
The win not only pushed the top-ranked Cats’ lead over second-place Kinmen Liquor to one-and-a-half games in the standings, but also avenged a bitter loss in the team’s first meeting on Jan. 10.
Byron Allen’s timely surge in the third — with 14 points in the quarter alone — helped lift the Tigers after an evenly fought first half. Another crucial factor in the Tigers victory was their ability to hold Pure Youth’s Jonathan Sanders to a sub-par eight points with a battling defense that frustrated the Builders’ top scorer throughout the game.
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