Poor free throw shooting by the dmedia Numen cost them the game on Friday night as they dropped an 83-93 decision against the previously slumping Dacin Tigers to snap a four-game winning streak at the Taipei County Sports Complex.
The Numen shot an uncharacteristic 15-for-29 from behind the charity stripe, well short of their season average of 65 percent heading into the game, in their worst performance of the season so far.
Especially affected by the sudden trouble at the free-throw line was Jonathan Sanders. The normally reliable forward shot a shocking 0-for-9 in the game to account for the bulk of the misses by dmedia.
"It's one of those fluky things that sometimes hits you, the basket suddenly seems to have a lid on it, that's about the only way to explain it," Numen coach Wu Jien-guo said trying to explain Sanders' off night from the line, even though he still ended up with 16 points, 14 rebounds, and seven assists for the game.
The contest began with the Tigers looking extremely sharp in a high-scoring first quarter that saw them leading the Numen by a deuce in a 28-26 shootout.
Then things quieted down for both squads with the Tigers outscoring the Numen 20-12 in the second quarter to end the first half leading 48-38.
Back-to-back three-pointers by Wang Chih-chuin that capped an amazing 15-3 run midway through the third gave the Tigers a surprising 63-41 lead.
Even though the Numen returned the favor with several mini runs of their own to cut the deficit down to less than ten in the closing minutes of the third, the cats seemed destined to take the game as Chen Tzu-wei and Chang Chih-fong connected from the perimeters to keep the margin at double-digits until the end.
Celebrating his return from a month-long absence to nurse an ankle injury was Wang who downed six three's on a 25-point effort to lead his team in scoring.
Also starring for the Tigers were Chang and small forward Lin Yi-hui with 16 points apiece to help their team win only their second game in seven.
Bank of Taiwan 87, Pure Youth 114
Erupting for 65 points in an incredible second half, Pure Youth Constructions demolished the Bank of Taiwan by an overwhelming 114-87 margin to win consecutive games for the first time this season.
What was an evenly fought first half that saw Pure Youth leading by 49-44 turned into a blowout win as they opened the second half with an 11-0 run for a commanding 16-point advantage before upping the lead to as large as 30 points to put the game away long before the final buzzer.
All twelve players for Pure Youth played and scored in the game with six racking up ten or more points on the night.
The Bankers finally managed to put up a season-high 34 points in the fourth quarter on a rare scoring spree. But that did not make up for the mere nine points that they scored during the game-deciding third quarter (all by forward Hsu Chih-chiang) as they lost by double-digits for the tenth time in their 13 losses this season.
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