Top-ranked Pure Youth Construction followed a three-win week with a 91-76 victory over Kinmen Kaoliang at the Hualien County Sports Complex last night to extend their winning streak to five straight.
Garret Siler netted a season-high 30 points and 16 rebounds to lift the three-time defending champions past a Distillers squad who kept the Builders’ lead to less than 10 for three quarters before letting the game slip away in a disappointing fourth.
The former Phoenix Suns player shot a perfect 13 for 13 from the field to show off his exceptional experience and shot selection.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Also starring for Pure Youth was Tsai Wen-cheng, who scratched and scraped his way to 18 points, several of which came via put-back baskets off the five offensive rebounds he grabbed for the night.
“With Siler attracting attention from the opposing defense inside the paint, it gave me a chance to get in position for offensive rebounds,” Tsai said after the game.
His recent surge, coupled with Siler’s tremendous size advantage, has made the Builders even tougher to beat, despite the absence of injured big man Quincy Davis.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times.
Eight quick points by Siler in the opening quarter propelled Pure Youth to a 21-14 lead after 10 minutes of play.
Then came a pair of three-pointers from long-range threat Chen Tzu-wei, who teamed up with Tsai with six points apiece in the second to give their team a 43-33 lead at the half.
Kinmen Kaoliang managed to bring their game up a notch, with Bryan Davis spearheading a 26-point outburst by scoring 17 of his game-high 38 points in the quarter to keep the deficit at eight for the start of the fourth quarter.
That was as close as the Distillers got as Pure Youth took over the game in the final quarter to seal the deal long before the final buzzer sounded.
The loss for Kinmen Kaoliang dropped them to a tie for last place in the standings with the Dacin Tigers, while guaranteeing idle Bank of Taiwan a berth in the post-season.
Braves 75, Taiwan Beer 67
The Fubon Braves rallied from five down at the start of the fourth to make a strong finish to take the win from Taiwan Beer 75-67 in the second game in Hualien last night.
Darian Townes and Wu Yung-ren combined for 13 of their team’s final 19 points, with Townes netting a clutch put-back basket and Wu making some daring drives to the hoop to stun a Taiwan Beer squad who led by as many as seven in the second half before faltering in the decisive fourth to lose by eight.
Head coach Yen Chia-hua’s technical foul with 4 minutes, 13 seconds remaining in what ended up being a five-point turnaround proved crucial as it turned a slim one-point lead into an insurmountable six-point lead.
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