Bank of Taiwan rallied from a first-half deficit with a solid second half to edge Kinmen Kaoliang 78-73 at the Changhua County Gymnasium last night after holding the Distillers to 10 points in the third quarter.
The win not only opened the weekend of play on a high note for the Bankers, but also evened their record to 2-2, a tremendous improvement compared to their 6-24 record last season.
“It was definitely a big win for us, because it showed that we are capable of coming back against a good team,” Bankers skipper Hung Chun-cheng said after the game.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
It was the second time in the past week that his side rallied to beat an opponent after their come-from-behind win over the Fubon Braves on Friday last week.
The Bankers did not start off the game as well as they would have liked as they shot an awful 0-for-6 from beyond the three-point line to trail Kinmen Kaoliang 21-14 after one quarter of play.
However, they chipped away at the deficit to make it a three-point game (36-33) at the half, with James Tyler and Hsu Chih-chiang scoring six points apiece in the second quarter.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
That set up the game-turning third in which the Bankers held Kinmen Kaoliang to 10 points on dismal four-for-17 shooting from the field by the Distillers, while scoring 20 to take a 53-46 lead.
The Distillers lost their top scorer, Bryan Davis, to five fouls, leaving the interior defense vulnerable.
A 10-0 run by the Bankers early in the fourth upped their lead to 17, which they did not relinquish.
Four different players scored in double-digits for the Bankers, led by Hsu and Chen Hsuan-hsiang’s game-high 18.
For the Distillers, Lin Wei-han’s team-best 15 led a quartet of double-figure scorers. Davis had 14 in less than three quarters of work, well shy of his league-leading 33.7 point-per-game average.
In the night’s other game, the Braves downed Taiwan Beer 75-62.
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