Taiwan Beer burst into the postseason with a solid 78-68 defeat of the Yulon Luxgens at the Taipei County Sports Complex in Sinjhuang on Friday evening to take an early lead in the best-of-five first-round series.
Lin “the Beast” Chih-jeh proved his MVP status in the past two championship finals by scoring 30 points with 11 rebounds to lead the defending champs past the Luxgens.
The showdown between the second and third seeds in the postseason saw the Luxgens jump to an 18-15 lead after a sloppy opening quarter, but the Beast awoke with 10 second-quarter points to help Taiwan Beer close out the first half with a 37-32 lead.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Seven straight points by the Beast to start the second half gave Taiwan Beer a double-digit advantage they didn’t relinquish until a late-game rally by the Luxgens.
Yulon had its best chance to make a run late in the third when the Beast was called for his fourth foul of the game. The Luxgens cut the deficit to under 10 midway through the fourth with consecutive threes from Chen “the Airman” Hsin-an and Lu Cheng-rue.
That was as close as they got as Beer countered with a 6-0 run of their own to reclaim a double-digit lead that ended the game long before the final buzzer.TIGERS 88, PURE YOUTH 70
The top-seeded Dacin Tigers had little trouble against Pure Youth Construction with an easy 88-70 win over the fourth-seeded Builders on Friday to win game one of their best-of-five series.
All-star guard Chang Chih-fong had a big shooting day, hitting nine of 19 from the field to rack up a game-high 20 points for the Cats.
Also starring for Dacin was big-man Byron Allen of the US, who muscled his way inside the paint for 17 points and nine boards to miss a double-double performance by a lone rebound.
The Builders opened the game with a surprising 27-24 lead in the first quarter, but quickly lost their shooting touch and managed to score only 13 in the second quarter to fall behind 40-44 at the half.
They were never able to recover from the halftime deficit as Dacin began the second half with a 10-3 run for a double-digit lead they held to the end.
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