Leading his club to three straight wins in a perfect 3-0 weekend of play, Yulon Dinos captain Chen Chih-chung landed the Player of the Week honor in the Super Basketball League.
The was the first time in his career that the veteran Dinos point guard (who is also the head coach for the National Taishan Senior High School) has won the coveted weekly honor, having been overshadowed by high profile players such as Chen "Airman" Hsin-an or Tseng Wen-ding over the years.
"It's definitely an honor to win the award, but nothing will beat the feeling of winning the league title back," a very excited Chen Chih-chung said after learning of his selection to the weekly award, referring to the Dinos' conquest to win their fourth league championship in five seasons.
His 18-point scoring average, along with 2.7 assists per game over the Dinos' last three games, was the main reason that they were able to take home the regular-season title for the fifth straight year despite playing without the service of the Airman due to an injury.
Chen and his Yulon buddies will have a chance to close out the season strongly with a meeting against Pure Youth Construction tonight before next Saturday's season finale versus the Dacin Tigers.
It will be an exciting game in the sense that these two clubs are expected to meet again during the first round of playoffs, with the Dinos representing the No. 1 seed and the builders returning to postseason play for the first time in three years as the fourth-seed.
"It's been nearly a month since we last met and they [Pure Youth] actually turned the table on us, so we'll try to get this one back," Dinos skipper Lee Yun-kuan said. His Dinos fell victims to an incredible comeback victory in overtime by the young builders on Feb. 15th.
The Dinos should have the Airman available for this game even though he probably will not see as much floor time as he normally would. However, that does not mean the Dinos will be any less potent as a healthy Tseng (returning from a two months-long injury absence) looks to flex his muscles against an inexperienced builders' frontcourt.
Tonight's Games
In addition to the Dinos-Pure Youth game which is scheduled for 8pm tonight at the Taipei County Sports Complex, the dmedia Numen will also take on Taiwan Beer in a highly anticipated battle between the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the league.
Like the Dinos against Pure Youth, this is the other first-round matchup in the upcoming postseason with winners of the game likely to end up with No. 2 seed while the losers will settle for No. 3.
Both teams will undoubtedly come out firing as they look to bounce back from disappointing losses on last Sunday that eliminated them from the regular-season title contention. And that means great news for hoop fans as the two teams fight for home-court advantage in the playoffs.
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