The top-ranked Dacin Tigers lost 80-69 to Pure Youth Construction at the Hsinchu Municipal Gymnasium on Sunday afternoon with a shorthanded crew that was missing team icon Tien Lei and point guard Wang Chih-chuin.
Even though Chang Chih-fong did net a game-high 25 points to lead the Tigers’ attack, it was not nearly enough to compensate for the absence of Tien and his 14 points-per-game average or Wang’s sound backcourt play as the defending champs committed a season-high 25 turnovers in a sloppy outing to close out the week on a whimper.
The Builders were well on top of their game with a balanced attack that placed five different players in double-digit scoring, headed by Huang Chi-fong’s team-high 16 on perfect 7-for-7 shooting from the field. Jonathan Sanders added 15 points with a dozen rebounds against a Dacin defense that saw its anchor, Byron Allen, foul out in the fourth quarter.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Pure Youth took a narrow 23-22 lead after the first quarter and held the Tigers to only nine points in the second to open a surprising 38-31 lead at the half.
The Tigers rallied in the third, clawing their way up to within a point of the Builders late in the period, but that was as close as they came as Pure Youth countered with a solid fourth quarter to ride a comfortable lead the rest of the way.
KINMEN LIQUOR 80, LEOPARDS 74
A timely surge by Lin Chih-long in the decisive fourth turned the game around for Kinmen Liquor, who overcame a second-half deficit to defeat the previously red-hot Taiwan Mobile Leopards on Sunday afternoon for their first win since the Lunar New Year break.
The fifth-year guard out of National University of Tainan connected on a pair of three-pointers and came up with a big steal, all in the final quarter to account for 10 of his team’s last 22 points.
US import Shawn “the Hawk” Hawkins had his usual 20-plus point production with a game-high 27 and 16 boards to lead the Distillers, outshining the Leopards’ hired gun Alexus Foyle, who racked up 24 points and 15 boards in a losing effort.
LUXGENS 72, BANK OF TAIWAN 66
The Yulon Luxgens avenged an earlier loss to Bank of Taiwan by beating the Bankers 72-66 on Sunday to improve to 7-6 for the season.
Being the lone team that the Bankers had beaten thus far, the Luxgens desperately wanted the win. And that was exactly what they did, outplaying the Bankers in every facet of the game to win it by six in the end.
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