Playing near-flawless ball in the second half, Bank of Taiwan overcame a six-point deficit in the third quarter and rallied from behind to defeat the top-ranked Dacin Tigers 67-59 at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City last night.
The win not only avenged a three-point loss in overtime to these same Tigers in their previous meeting, but also put the financial wizards in a great position to climb out of the cellar as they picked up win No. 3 to tie two other teams (Taiwan Beer and Kinmen Liquor) in total wins heading into this afternoon’s contests.
John Vaudreuil played his best game in nearly two years by grabbing a career-high 24 rebounds on a 12-point night for the Bankers while Hsu Chih-chiang and Chen Hsuen-hsiang accounted for 28 more to outplay the Cats in the biggest upset of the season so far.
The frontcourt trio for the Bankers more than shut down a potent Dacin offense by holding the league-leaders to a season-low 59 points, nearly 20 points short of their season average of 77.8 points per game heading into last night’s game.
Also starring for the Bankers was swingman Chung Hsiao-wen, whose reverse layup and acrobatic drive to the hoop in the third kept the Bankers in the game long enough to set the stage for their fourth-quarter run.
Bank of Taiwan also took much better care of the ball in the game-deciding second half, committing just four turnovers, compared with their usual ten-or-more per half.
“I knew if we’d take better care of the ball, we’d have a chance [at winning the game],” Bank of Taiwan skipper Lai Liang-chung said after the game.
His crew made good on his prediction by keeping their turnover total to a season-low 13 for the game as they won two of the past three convincingly against worthy opponents to give their fans something to talk about.
PURE YOUTH 97, KINMEN LIQUOR 74
Pure Youth Construction easily handled Kinmen Liquor in a 97-74 final in the second game in Sinjhuang last night.
It was the Builders’ seventh straight win, setting a new club record for longest win streak as they improved to 9-3 for the season.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
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