The Dacin Tigers welcomed back big center Sim Bhullar to the team after a one-game ban. Bhullar anchored the Dacin defense and dominated the boards to grind out a 69-59 win over the Fubon Braves in the Super Basketball League (SBL) first-round playoff at the Taoyuan Arena yesterday.
Bhullar, a Canadian player with parents from India, used all of his 226cm and 160kg frame to good advantage, as he pulled down 24 rebounds, 19 of them defensive rebounds, as well as seven points and two blocks.
Forward Lin Yi-hui led the Tigers charge with 17 points and control guard Su Yi-jie chipped in with 13 points, nine assists and seven rebounds, while Weng Jia-hong came off the bench to add 12 points for Dacin.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
The playoff was a defensive affair in the first half, with both sides tied at 27 at halftime, and the game was still tight with the Fubon Braves edging ahead by one point, 50-49, at the end of the third quarter.
In the final quarter, Dacin rallied to score 20 points against only nine for the opposition. Bhullar got the momentum rolling with a slam dunk to lift his teammates’ spirits, as Weng and scoring guard Lin Kuang-lun followed up with two three-pointers.
Dacin steadied their defense with Bhullar — nicknamed the “Great Wall of India” and a towering presence under the boards — to stop any threat of a comeback by the Braves, before settling for a 10-point margin to triumph.
Forward Chang Chung-hsien netted 16 points for the Fubon Braves and teammate American center Garret Siler grabbed 13 rebounds in a lost cause.
In the series opener on Saturday, the Fubon Braves fought to an 88-66 win against the Dacin Tigers, who were without Bhullar, as he had to sit out one game for arguing with the referee and receiving two technical fouls in a match last week.
An SBL rule gave the higher-place finishers a one-win advantage to start the first round, so the Dacin Tigers are up 2-1 in the series. They can advance into the second round by winning the next match.
In the other series, Kinmen Kaoliang made team history with their first victory in an SBL playoff when in the opener, also at the Taoyuan Arena, they prevailed over Taiwan Beer 72-68.
In the second game encounter last night, the Taiwan Beer pulled out a 74-69 win over the Kinmen Kaoliang.
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