Rashad Jones-Jennings’ two-handed dunk following a miss put Pure Youth Construction ahead with 12.7 seconds remaining in double overtime as they defeated the Dacin Tigers 87-85 at the Taipei Gymnasium last night for their first win in the Year of the Rabbit.
The play not only completed a valiant comeback rally by the Builders (12-5), who fell behind by as many as five points in the second overtime, but more importantly brought them a game closer to the top-ranked Taiwan Beer (14-3).
They now trail the Brew Crew by two games in the latest standings, after Taiwan Beer lost against Kinmen Kaoliang on Friday night.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Jones-Jennings, who also set a new season-high for rebounds with 28 in the game, might have won the game for the Builders, but it was Hong Chih-shan who nailed three three-pointers in the extra sessions on a 17-point night — the third of which made it 85-85 in the second overtime — that carried the diehard Builders against a red-hot Dacin club that seemed well on its way for another win with a five-point lead with three minutes remaining in the second overtime.
“Well, the coaches told me all week long that I should take whatever open shots that came to me, so I did just that without thinking about it too much,” Hong said after the game.
“Besides, if I miss, my teammates could always get the rebound for us,” the Player of the Week from late last month jokingly added.
The showdown between the second and third-place teams in the league opened with Pure Youth taking it strong to the hoop with Jones-Jennings hitting three shots from close range to give his team a 19-13 lead in the first quarter.
Pure Youth would add to their advantage by four in the second quarter to close out the first half with a 10-point cushion before the Tigers upped their game a notch to outscore the Builders 16-10 in the third quarter of a very physical match.
After the Builders retook a 10-point lead in the fourth, it was the Tigers who roared back with Tien Lei hitting a pair of three’s to bring his team back in the game.
Trailing by one, Jones-Jennings had a chance to win it for the Builders in regulation with two free throw attempts, but only managed to hit one, sending the game into overtime.
Luxgens 84, Bank of Taiwan 67
Behind a solid outing by Jermaine Dailey, the Yulon Luxgens dealt the Bank of Taiwan their second loss in as many days with an 84-67 triumph in Taipei Gymnasium yesterday afternoon.
The forward from the US showed off his exceptional leaping ability by snagging a game-high 25 rebounds for his new team on the day his employment with Yulon became official, winning the job outright from the departed Samuel Ekwe of Nigeria.
Also starring for the Luxgens was three-point threat Lu Cheng-rue, who converted five of nine from behind the three-point arc to keep the Bankers’ defense honest.
Down by 16 at the start of the second half, Bank of Taiwan went on a 14-3 run to get within five of Yulon on the fine play of Chen Hsuen-shiang and John Vaudreuil.
That was as close as they got as the Luxgens answered with a strong final quarter to put the game out of reach long before the final buzzer.
Leopards 101, Kinmen Kaoliang 92
The Taiwan Mobile Leopards proved too much to handle for Kinmen Kaoliang, winning the shootout between the two squads by a 101-92 margin in the night cap yesterday evening.
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