Last-placed Kinmen Liquor pulled off the upset of the season so far by humbling the second-ranked Taiwan Mobile Cloud Leopards 80-65 at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City yesterday afternoon.
The win not only halted a three-game slide for the Distillers as they improved to 3-11 for the season, but also denied the Leopards a golden opportunity to gain some ground against the top-ranked Pure Youth Construction, who lost their weekend opener on Friday night to the Dacin Tigers to reduce their lead over the Leopards in the standings to one-and-a-half games.
Leading the way for the underdogs was hired gun Taylor King, who followed a 33-point outing a week ago with a 30-point effort against a supposedly ready Leopard defense that seemed invisible at times yesterday.
The Distillers opened the contest by establishing a 21-14 lead and added three points to the cushion in a very physical second quarter to earn a surprising ten-point advantage at the half.
Although the Leopards managed to cut the deficit to as few as seven in the fourth quarter with several small scoring bursts, it did not affect the outcome of the game as the Distillers came up with one rally-killing basket after another over the final three minutes to wrap up the victory.
Taiwan Beer 82, Tigers 77 (OT)
Taiwan Beer ended a five-game losing skid by topping the Dacin Tigers in overtime in the second game in Sinjhuang yesterday.
Wang Jien-wei came off the bench to score five of his team’s dozen in the extra session to help the Brew Crew cool off a red-hot Tiger pack that had won three of their past four heading into the contest.
Also starring for the men in green was shooting guard Tso Tsong-kai, who managed to net a season-high 28 points, which included three three-pointers.
US import Byron Allen put up 19 points and eleven boards against his former team, despite fouling out in the fourth, to give skipper Liu Jia-fa the much-needed win.
Pure Youth 90, Luxgens 62
Pure Youth Construction worked off their frustration over a one-point loss to the Dacin Tigers on Friday with a lopsided win over the Yulon Luxgens in the late game in Sinjhuang last night.
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