Slumping Taiwan Beer took advantage of a 23-5 run in the third quarter to open a double-digit lead and went on to defeat the Taiwan Mobile Leopards 86-69 at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City yesterday afternoon to nip a six-game losing skid.
Amis warriors Yang Jing-min and Ho Sho-cheng scored 20 points apiece, while newcomer Kibwe Trim added seven more and a dozen rebounds to help the team bounce back from their worst losing streak in team history.
“[Trim] didn’t have the big game we were hoping for, but he was effective enough to get the job done,” Taiwan Beer head coach Yen Jia-hua said after the game, referring to Trim’s three quick fouls in the opening quarter to keep the hired gun from Trinidad and Tobago from a more explosive showing.
Photo: Wang Yi-song, Taipei Times
However, it was enough to carry the defending champs over the hump for that elusive win to improve their season mark to 4-7.
After a hard-fought first quarter that saw the Leopards take a surprising 15-13 lead, the pendulum quickly swung the Brew Crew’s way as they doubled up on Taiwan Mobile in a 24-12 scoring differential in the second quarter to open a double-digit lead en route to a blowout victory.
“[Taiwan Beer] really outplayed us in every aspect of the game; it didn’t matter who was on the floor or what we tried to do,” Leopards skipper Chia Fan said after the game.
Kinmen Liquor 58,
Bank of Taiwan 57
Bank of Taiwan blew a four-point lead in the final minute to drop a 58-57 decision to Kinmen Liquor in the second game in Sinjhuang yesterday afternoon.
Chen Hsuen-hsiang’s three-pointer with 1:13 remaining in the game put the Bankers ahead 55-51 against the Distillers in a game they thought they had won.
However, it was the Distillers who had the last laugh as Shang Wei-fan took advantage of a traveling violation by the Bankers’ John Vaudreuil with 43.4 seconds remaining by putting in the game-tying basket at the 34.7 second mark to set up Chou Tzu-hua’s go-ahead three-pointer with 13.9 seconds left in the game.
The Bankers had at least two more clear looks at the basket the rest of the way, but failed to connect on either, settling with a meaningless put-back basket with time expiring to lose this game by one.
Tigers 79, Luxgens 78
The Dacin Tigers bounced back from a tough Friday loss to Bank of Taiwan with a narrow 79-78 win over the Yulon Luxgens in yesterday’s final game in Sinjhuang.
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