Top-seeded National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) kept their unbeaten streak intact in the Elite Eight round of the University Basketball Association (UBA) tournament with a thrilling 74-71 win over previously undefeated Chinese Culture University (CCU) in front of a big home crowd on Tuesday.
The showdown between the top two programs in the country lived up to its billing despite the 18-point lead that NTNU managed to attain in the third quarter as CCU rallied to pull within three with under a minute remaining in the contest.
But that was as close as they came as Lee Wei-tseh’s would-be game-tying three bounced off the rim at the buzzer to give the hosts the narrow victory.
Even though NTNU have five current Super Basketball League (SBL) starters in its lineup —more than any other school — the night belonged to NTNU’s bench, with Lee Ming-hui lighting up the scoreboard with four threes in the third quarter to propel his team of sophomores and freshmen to a surprising 13-0 run against CCU.
He racked up a team-high 18 points on solid 6-for-11 shooting, all from behind the three-point arc.
“This [the bench] is National Taiwan Normal’s future,” a very pleased and somewhat relieved NTNU head coach Shih Ming-tsong said after the game, in which his players repeatedly failed to put the game away in the fourth against a tenacious comeback effort from CCU.
HSING WU 70, DIWAN 65
Hsing Wu College finally won its first game in six tries by defeating Tainan’s Diwan University on Tuesday night.
Down by eight at the start of the second half (37-29), Hsing Wu outscored Diwan 25-10 in the third to go ahead by seven before holding on to win.
It was a big victory for Hsing Wu that probably secured a seventh-place finish for them. Both Diwan and Hsing Wu are expected to finish with an identical 1-6 mark but Hsing Wu hold the advantage after winning the head-to-head competition between the two squads.
Also on Tuesday, it was:
• NTCPE 72, Fu Jen Catholic 55
• Mingdao 68, NTUA 52
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