The annual University Basketball Association (UBA) tournament continued at Tungnan University in New Taipei City yesterday afternoon, with National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) topping Taichung’s National Taiwan College of Physical Education in a 68-64 final.
What should have been an easy victory for the three-time defending champions was anything but, as the future PE teachers showed tremendous resilience by hanging with NTNU through three quarters before faltering in a crucial fourth to lose the game by four in the end.
Hampered by the new official rules that prohibit participation of current Super Basketball League (SBL) players, NTNU were forced to go with a young lineup that was mostly made up of sophomores. Their inexperience was evident as they fell behind by as many as eight in the second half, before they rallied with a 15-2 run to come from behind and escape with a narrow win.
Championing the valiant comeback effort for NTNU was forward Lee Jia-ching, who scored nine of his team’s 15 points during the game-turning run on a 19-point game to keep the defending champs’ hopes of a repeat of their success alive.
“Our youth has an advantage and a disadvantage — the advantage being that we are young and hungry, while the disadvantage is that we may not be as consistent as we would like to be,” NTNU skipper Shih Ming-tsong said after the game.
CHINESE CULTURE UNIVERSITY 107, TUNGNAN UNIVERSITY 79
Chinese Culture University silenced a hostile home crowd by skidding past the hosts from Tungnan University in a dominating second half to beat Tungnan 107-79, improving to a 6-1 record through seven games.
Tungnan hanged with the perennial powerhouses from Taipei’s Yanmingshan in a high-scoring first half that saw them playing to a 50-all deadlock.
That was as close as Tungnan got as they fell victim to several fastbreak baskets by Chinese Culture’s transition game during an inferior third quarter to fall behind by as many as a dozen, before folding up their tents in the fourth and losing by more than 20.
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