Overcoming a slow start in the first quarter with an explosive second half, Pure Youth Construction easily cruised past the Dacin Tigers in an 88-71 final at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City last night to take Game 1 of the Super Basketball League (SBL) Championship Finals.
Chen Shih-jeh and Quincy Davis had a field day against the Dacin defense as they combined for 45 points on the night, mostly from inside the paint, with the former penetrating the Dacin interior defense at will and the latter gaining great inside position for several easy slams to lift the Builders past the Cats.
Making their first-ever appearance in the finals, the Builders showed some big-game jitters with a sub-par first quarter in which they committed five turnovers to find themselves trailing the Cats by six in a 20-14 game.
Photo: Super Basketball League
However, they would more than make up for the difference with a sound second quarter behind the strong play of Chen, whose 12 points in the quarter sparked a 29-point burst that put his team ahead 43-38 at the half.
Pure Youth increased their lead to 11 in the third quarter, despite a 6-0 run by the Tigers that brought them to within three of the Builders at one point.
That was all the Tigers could handle as the Builders maintained a double-digit advantage for a good part of the fourth quarter before they simply piled on the points over the final three minutes to claim the all-important series opener.
Four three-pointers by the Tigers in the third kept them in the game early in the second half, but the pressure and the high intensity of the Builders, whose bench was five men deep, eventually caught up with the Tigers as they simply ran out of gas over the final 12 minutes to fall far short in the end.
Four different players scored 14 or more points in the game, with Chen’s 24 leading the way. Tsai Wen-cheng also came off the bench for skipper Hsu Jin-tseh with an immaculate 17-point effort to give the starters some much-needed rest.
As for the Tigers, Noel Felix’s 19-point outing led a fatigued squad who only had three days of rest since Tuesday night’s narrow Game 7 win over Taiwan Beer, compared with the 10 days of down time that Pure Youth enjoyed.
TONIGHT’S CONTEST
The two teams will suit up for Game 2 this evening with the tipoff scheduled for 6pm in Sinjhuang.
It is a must-win situation for the Tigers, since no teams have ever rallied from an 0-2 deficit to win a title in league history.
A banged-up Tien Lei must also get well in a hurry for the Cats if they wish to upset the -regular--season champs in this best-of-seven series.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
RSS