The Dacin Tigers captured their second championship with a team effort to overpower the Yulon Luxgen Dinos 98-77 at the Sinjhuang Gymnasium last night, closing out the season in impressive style with a four-game sweep of the Super Basketball League (SBL) finals.
The roaring Tigers put on an outstanding performance with four of the starting five posting double-digit scores, led by the Taiwanese star duo of Chou Yi-hsiang with 26 and Su Yi-chieh with 21.
They pulled away from Yulon in the final two quarters after a relatively close halftime score of 46-40.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Pivotal plays in the third quarter went a long way toward sealing the game, with Dacin center Sim Bhullar engaged in a tenacious battle under the post against Herve Lamizana of the Ivory Coast as Yulon rallied with field goals to make it 47-49 early in the third quarter.
Bhullar, a Canadian-Indian with NBA experience, used his 226cm, 160kg frame to outmuscle Lamizana as the two imports got into a push-and-shove tussle.
“The Great Wall of India” tipped in a rebound and moments later slammed in a basket with an alley-oop to charge up his Dacin teammates amid a 10-2 run.
Dacin put the game away in that quarter, stretching their lead to 16 points, 76-60, at the end of third.
Chou and Su also made key contributions in the third, sinking three-pointers and scoring field goals to be first and second for overall scoring.
Dacin maintained their dominance in shooting and pulling down rebounds in the fourth quarter, while Bhullar and Lamizana were rested in the final 10 minutes with the outcome no longer in doubt.
The Tigers cruised from there to a 21-point victory.
Dacin manager Chou Ta-tsung savored the four-game sweep, surrounded by his players celebrating after the final whistle.
Fans tossed blue ribbons, the team’s colors, to mark their second SBL crown after Chou Ta-tsung’s previous triumph with a younger team in 2009.
The finals MVP was Su for his leadership and scoring.
“We had good team chemistry and all of the players trained together diligently throughout the season,” Su said. “Credit for this title should go to my teammates, because they were great through these four matches.”
“We had a large turnout of fans, so we did not want Yulon to win this game, because we did not want to disappoint so many of our supporters,” he said.
Chou Yi-hsiang said he was overjoyed with the title, because it was his first championship in his third year with the team.
“My teammates all helped me over the past three years,” he said. “I was still learning the game, but have grown up to become a better player. This championship title means a lot to me, it is a fantastic feeling.”
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